As Extreme Heat and Smoke Threaten U.S. Farmworkers, Federal Health Leaders Evaluate Protections
Leaders of the Department of Health and Human Services will meet throughout the spring and summer to help protect farm laborers from heat and wildfire smoke
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra described the risks faced by his father, a farmworker in California.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
CLIMATEWIRE | A group of the nation’s health experts will regularly meet this spring and summer in an effort to better protect farmworkers from extreme heat and wildfire smoke.
The new initiative is the brainchild of Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, whose father picked crops in California farm fields.
“This is personal to me because my father was a farmworker and had to work out in those conditions,” Becerra said during a press conference this week about President Joe Biden’s proposed budget. “There is no one in America who should have to die because of exposure to heat and smoke, but more and more, it is getting to that point.”
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Agriculture workers are particularly vulnerable to the health effects of heat and smoke. Outside activities such as digging irrigation ditches and picking crops can raise body temperatures and increase respiratory rates, making workers more susceptible to heat stroke.
According to data kept by the Department of Labor, heat exposure kills an average of 33 workers per year.
Becerra’s so-called Initiative on Protecting Farmworkers from Extreme Heat and Wildfire Smoke had its first meeting late last week and will convene regularly between March and December 2024. The group includes…
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