“That high RPM causes a screaming sound, and that screaming sound is what bothers everyone,” said Larry Will, a consultant and former engineering vice president for Echo, a maker of outdoor power equipment that routinely opposes blower bans in communities that propose them. “The ban is blind. It doesn’t recognize that there’s such a thing as a quiet blower.”

While a number of cities, including Los Angeles; Aspen, Co.; Vancouver, British Columbia; and Palo Alto, Calif., currently have full or partial bans on gas-powered leaf blowers, scores of others are considering such moves.

Arrayed against anti-blower organizers are a fleet of quiet blowers that promise to produce four times less noise than older models.

Echo’s quietest power model, the PB-460LN Quiet 1, operates at a volume of 65 decibels, which is quieter than typical freeway traffic.