California Wildfires
California Wildfires
Tanya Tran
In one of the lectures of my Public Health class, we learned about California wildfires and how they can affect our health and well-being. In the past few years, we have seen some of the deadliest fires to hit California. We have seen fires all over the state, and each year they seem to be getting worse and hitting more people. Not only do the fires directly affect the lives of the people living there, but they also affect those of the neighboring cities. Furthermore, the policies around what kinds of procedures and protocols that should be taking place are virtually nonexistent. The occasional policy that does exist implements a very limited amount of protection for labor workers.
When wildfires are in full effect, they burn everything in their way. They do not change their path for anything. Unfortunately, this means that the particulate matter of all the burned houses, trees, cars, and all else, is released into our air and can travel hundreds of miles over other cities as well. Specifically though, particulate matter with the size of 2.5 micrometers, or PM2.5, is what causes the most damage to our bodies because they are small enough to enter our lungs and bloodstream. There are short term and long term effects that wildfires can have on our bodies. Some examples of short term effects are fatigue, burning eyes, coughing, and difficulty breathing. Some long term effects are the worsening of asthma and reduced lung function. Although, with proper implementation of better policies the negative effects of wildfires can be substantially reduced.
The current policies we have in place to prevent and combat wildfires are scarce. Furthermore, there is limited protection for workers who are not firefighters, such as construction workers, agricultural workers, day laborers, and many others. Many employers do not communicate with their employees about the status of wildfires. For example, sometimes house workers, like gardeners, show up to work even when the area has been evacuated because they were still instructed to do so.
You would think that because of the high occurrence of wildfires, that we would have more policies and procedures, but until recently there weren’t any. Fortunately on July 29, 2019, the California/OSHA Wildfire Smoke Emergency Standard went into effect. The standard requires employers to take more initiatives with their employees. For example, when the air quality index of particulate matter reaches a certain threshold, employers must take action to make working conditions safer for its employees. Discouragingly, the emergency standard only mandates that employers require the use of respirators after the AQI reaches over 500 which is classified as past hazardous, which means that at levels of unhealthy, very unhealthy, and hazardous, or an AQI of 151-500, workers are merely encouraged to wear the respirators. Moreover, the standard is only viable for a year which could lead to working conditions returning to the way it was before.
We should be encouraging and supporting advocates to continue enhancing legislation in order to minimize the effects that wildfires have on outdoor workers and the population as a whole.