ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Around 10 million people were left in unhealthy air conditions after a series of fires in LA County last month. Among them, outdoor workers laboring in fields - and those workers have little to no protection from wildfire smoke. Nate Perez with NPR's Climate Desk reports.
NATE PEREZ, BYLINE: A recent video circulating on social media showed farmworkers in Ventura County picking strawberries under a blood orange sky. That smoke came from the Hughes Fire in north LA County.
ELIZABETH STRATER: That reddish light, it really - there's something primal that you really do - sort of your lizard brain recognizes that there's danger, you know?
PEREZ: That's Elizabeth Strater. She's the United Farm Workers National Vice President. She says Oxnard, a city in Ventura County, is surrounded by mountains and...
STRATER: Those little valleys and basins that do tend to be such rich agricultural land are also places that are prone to be affected by wildfire smoke.
PEREZ: People don't realize how close LA is to the state's agricultural region, which supplies produce all over the country. Strater says just a little north of the city, and...
STRATER: Suddenly, you're surrounded by those green fields, those long rows, and you see the bodies of the workers out there affected by the smoke.
PEREZ: The Air Quality Index was around 150 that late January day in parts of LA and Ventura County. That's where around 40,000 farmworkers pick strawberries, citrus and other produce this time of year. Michael Mendez has studied farmworkers for nearly a decade. He says farmworkers breathe in more toxic air because that work is similar to exercising.
MICHAEL MENDEZ: They're breathing in more air because they're working fast. They're trying to get all the produce into the bins.
PEREZ: That's because some farmworkers are paid by how many bins they fill with produce, so the more bins you fill, the more money you make. Yet farmworkers have little to no protection from wildfire smoke. Employers in California are legally required to provide N95 respirators to workers when the AQI reaches 150, but employees are not actually required to use them. Oregon and Washington are the only other states to also have this requirement, so when the Hughes fire broke out, labor unions and community aid groups scrambled to provide more than 21,000 respirator masks to farmworkers. Jorge Toledano is with MICOP, a nonprofit that helps indigenous migrant communities.
JORGE TOLEDANO: (Speaking Spanish).
PEREZ: He says workers are worried about their health, but they know they have to feed their families, pay rent and live. They have no choice but to work. When AQI levels hover between 100 to 200 on a smoky day, studies show that air pollution is equivalent to smoking a quarter- to a half-pack of cigarettes a day, and many farmworkers in California already have preexisting health disparities like asthma and other respiratory illnesses. Wildfire smoke can worsen those conditions. That's according to Mendez.
MENDEZ: There needs to be additional care and guidance and enforcement for these individuals that are at the front lines of this climate crisis and are continuing to work throughout these wildfires.
PEREZ: A new law that allows farmworkers to take sick days when the AQI reaches unhealthy levels took effect this year in California, but the UFW and MICOP say workers feel the economic pressure to continue working. Nate Perez, NPR News.
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