wildfire smoke

Phil Barber, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Study adds to criticisms of county’s Ag Pass program as authors, trade group spar over interpretation

A newly published UC Berkeley study takes a highly critical view of Sonoma County’s Ag Pass program, adding to previous analyses that suggest the system, which allows agricultural workers into disaster evacuation zones when approved by the Sheriff’s Office, keeps local industry humming at the expense of worker health and safety.

Among the findings of a survey of more than 1,000 Sonoma County farmworkers presented in the article published Oct. 20 in the Journal of Agromedicine:

• 75% of respondents said they had done agricultural work during an active wildfire, or in the presence of wildfire smoke.

• 37% said their employers had not provided them with any personal protective equipment while they were working during fires.

• 66% said their health was affected by working during wildfires, with 83% of those citing eye irritation, 75% reporting headaches and 45% shortness of breath.

• 57% said they felt sick but continued to work because they couldn’t afford the lost income, and 51% said they did so because they were afraid of losing their jobs.

• Only 25% said they would feel safe gathering more information and signing up for the program through the Sheriff’s Office.

“Our research … identifies how the county developed a program that expanded access to agricultural workers but in practice primarily meets the needs of owners/operators,” wrote the study’s primary authors, Linda T. Gordon of the Berkeley Human Rights Center and Carly Hyland in the School of Public Health, in an accompanying white paper.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/10/24/berkeley-study-sonoma-agpass-farmworker-access-fires/

Mary Callahan, PRESS DEMOCRAT

New research on the dangers agricultural laborers face as climate change contributes to larger, more frequent wildfires has rekindled criticism of Sonoma County policies that researchers say prioritize wine industry interests over worker health.

The study collected data from the 2020 North Bay wildfire season, when the lightning-sparked LNU Complex Fire and the Glass Fire burned for more than two smoke-filled months. The data show there were 17 days when workers were allowed onto vineyards and farms under the county “Ag Pass” program even though air quality in those areas was deemed unhealthy even for hardy individuals.

At the time, public agencies urged residents to reduce prolonged or heavy exertion because of the smoke, and mandatory evacuations were in force. However, agricultural workers, mostly Latino and Indigenous, were allowed into evacuation zones to pick grapes and perform other agricultural tasks as the air burned their eyes, throats and lungs, researchers said.

Fine particulate matter ― tiny particles that can be drawn deeply into the lungs and even the bloodstream ― remained elevated at night, when fire activity typically declines. Much of the grape harvest is carried out in the dark, in cooler temperatures, which further increased the risk of short- and long-term health effects, including higher mortality rates.

The study, published last week in the American Geophysical Union journal GeoHealth, is the latest in a series of papers and policy briefs focused on Sonoma County agricultural workers and the 2020 wildfires, which overlapped harvest season.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2024/08/23/new-study-air-quality-data-from-2020-wildfires-shows-danger-smoke-poses-for-ag-workers/