Exposure of agricultural workers in California to wildfire smoke under past and future climate conditions

Abstract

Wildfire activity in the western U.S. has increased in frequency and severity in recent decades. Wildfire smoke emissions contribute to elevated fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations that are dangerous to public health. Due to the outdoor and physically demanding nature of their work, agricultural workers are particularly vulnerable to wildfire smoke pollution. In this study, we quantify the potential exposure of agricultural workers in California to past (2004–2009) and future (2046–2051) smoke PM2.5. We find that while absolute increases in smoke PM2.5 exposure are largest in northern California, agricultural regions in the Central Valley and Central Coast may be highly vulnerable to future increases in smoke PM2.5 concentrations. We find an increase from 6 to 8 million worker smoke exposure days (+35%) of ‘smokewave’ exposure for agricultural workers across the state under future climate conditions, with the largest increases in Tulare, Monterey, and Fresno counties. Under future climate conditions, we find 1.9 million worker smoke exposure days of agricultural worker exposure to levels of total PM2.5 pollution deemed ‘Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups.’ This is a 190% increase over past climate conditions. Wildfire smoke PM2.5 contributes, on average, to more than 90% of these daily PM2.5 exceedances compared with non-fire sources of air pollution. Using the recent extreme wildfire season of 2020 as a case study, we show that existing monitoring networks do not provide adequate sampling of PM2.5 in many future at-risk wildfire regions with large numbers of agricultural workers. Policies will need to consider the changing patterns of smoke PM2.5 exposure under future climate conditions to better protect outdoor agricultural workers.