Engine Noise

* Your insightful editorial (Dec. 14) about the “growling” and “primitive” engines in water scooters, which spill nearly a third of their gas and oil, hit three nails on the head at once.

How about the ear-killing din of leaf blowers and lawn mowers? They belch polluting unburned gas and oil, too, but right in our neighborhoods, where we yearn to live, breathe and sleep in peace.

Of course the humble operators need their jobs. But how about their hearing? Should it take a wave of lawsuits for deafened ears and poisoned lungs to get the manufacturers’ attention?

WILLIAM H. HENSEY JR.

Hollywood