Wildfires are growing under climate change, and their smoke threatens farmworkers, study says

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — As climate change fuels the intensity and frequency of wildfires, it’s also driving up the health risks for farmworkers who often have no choice but to continue working amid dangerous levels of smoke. New research published in the journal GeoHealth found that farmworkers in California’s famed wine country of Sonoma County were exposed to high air pollution levels during wildfires in 2020. They also found that a county program that allowed workers to enter mandatory evacuation zones during wildfires to harvest crops was inconsistent and scantly enforced. They recommended a series of steps to protect workers, including air quality monitors at work sites, stricter requirements for employers, emergency plans and trainings in various languages, post-exposure health screenings and hazard pay.