With autumn just one week away, it’s natural to focus on our most cherished thoughts of the season. Like why did our neighbor decide that 7 a.m. on a weekend morning was a good time to start up his gas-powered leaf blower and start blasting away in his front lawn? Wait, does that sound angry? We didn’t mean to come across as annoyed. Or maybe we did. It’s just hard to think straight with all that awful racket waking up the neighborhood.

But wait, it’s actually quite worse than that. Gasoline-fueled leaf blowers are no mere annoyance. They produce far more pollution than most people realize. One advocacy group has estimated that 30 minutes of use produces the equivalent pollution to a Ford F-150 driven from Texas to Alaska (or 3,900 miles if you’re headed in a different direction). And environmental advocates have warned that even short exposure to leaf blowers can have adverse health consequences not only from ozone-forming chemicals but from stirring up potentially harmful particulate matter including animal feces in the yard.

That’s why we’re glad to see the Baltimore City Council is set to take up legislation to ban gas-powered “debris removal equipment” on Monday. The bill has the backing of Councilmembers Ryan Dorsey, Kristerfer Burnett and Odette Ramos. It should pass the full council — particularly those who are serious not only about human health, but climate change given that electric leaf blowers can perform much of the same function without producing greenhouse gas emissions.

We don’t doubt that there are many landscaping firms that have invested significantly in leaf blowers. That is unfortunate, but health advocates say at least 400 communities across the nation have already imposed bans or limits on the highly inefficient devices, including nearby Washington, D.C. If we’re going to get serious about health and environmental concerns on other fronts, from coal-fired power plants to leaking sewage lines, we can’t turn our backs on leaf blowers. Consider this a wakeup call — and maybe even an opportunity to get a little more shuteye on the weekends.