Skip to content
CapRadio

CapRadio

signal status listen live donate
listen live donate signal status
listen live donate signal status
  • News
    • topics
    • State Government
    • Environment
    • Health Care
    • Race and Equity
    • Business
    • Arts and Lifestyle
    • Food and Sustainability
    • PolitiFact California
  • Music
    • genres
    • Classical
    • Jazz
    • Eclectic
    • Daily Playlist
  • Programs + Podcasts
    • news
    • Morning Edition
    • All Things Considered
    • Marketplace
    • Insight With Vicki Gonzalez
    • music
    • Acid Jazz
    • At the Opera
    • Classical Music
    • Connections
    • Excellence in Jazz
    • Hey, Listen!
    • K-ZAP on CapRadio
    • Mick Martin's Blues Party
    • Programs A-Z
    • Podcast Directory
  • Schedules
    • News
    • Music
    • ClassicalStream
    • JazzStream
    • Weekly Schedule
    • Daily Playlist
  • Community
    • Events Calendar
    • CapRadio Garden
    • CapRadio Reads
    • Ticket Giveaways
  • Support
    • Evergreen Gift
    • One-Time Gift
    • Corporate Support
    • Vehicle Donation
    • Stock Gift
    • Legacy Gift
    • Endowment Gift
    • Benefits
    • Member FAQ
    • e‑Newsletter
    • Drawing Winners
    • Thank You Gifts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Close Menu

Our investigation, 'Dangerous Air' prompts lawmaker calls for worker protections, fire prevention investments

  •  Scott Rodd 
Monday, October 4, 2021 | Sacramento, CA
Andrew Nixon / CapRadio

Smoke is visible in Sacramento Friday, August 21, 2020.

Andrew Nixon / CapRadio

State and federal lawmakers plan to introduce legislation and hold at least one oversight hearing in response to Dangerous Air, an investigation from the California Newsroom, which showed smoke from western wildfires is choking vast swaths of the country, from Los Angeles to Boston.

“This investigation confirms what we’ve known for years: as wildfires become more frequent due to climate change, the health of our communities will suffer,” said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-San Jose), who chairs the U.S. House Oversight Subcommittee on Environment, in an emailed statement. “I will have a hearing on wildfires, smoke pollution, and commercial logging practices that may be making the problem worse. This is a matter of public health, environmental justice, and Congress has no option but to act.”

Photo Illustration by Marissa Espiritu / Photo by Andrew Nixon

Environment

Dangerous Air: As California burns, America breathes toxic smoke

The investigation analyzed federal satellite imagery collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Carried out in partnership with Stanford University’s Environmental Change and Human Outcomes Lab, it revealed a startling increase in the number of days residents were breathing smoke in cities across America.

In San Jose, which Khanna represents, residents breathed wildfire smoke an average of 45 days a year between 2016 and 2020, the investigation found, a 400% increase from the period between 2009 to 2013. 

“We are living and breathing the climate crisis,” tweeted Congressman Jason Crow (D- Colorado). He noted our investigation showed his suburban Denver district was “seeing an average of 2 additional weeks of wildfire smoke per year — 14 more days of increased risk for asthma, respiratory disease, and premature births.”

Lawmakers from both parties said the investigation provided further evidence for a comprehensive government response. They advocated for better forest management, including prescribed burns, which experts say are crucial to stemming serious wildfires that send dangerous smoke into the skies. And there are proposals for the immediate term — including stronger protections for workers and the creation of smoke shelters, where people with elevated health risks can escape the dangerous air.

In California, where residents are most impacted, Assemblywoman Luz Rivas, a Democrat from Los Angeles who chairs the Assembly Natural Resources Committee, said she plans to introduce a legislative package to address wildfire smoke impacts.

One potential area of focus would be increasing protections for outdoor workers and standardizing when school children are not let out for recess to avoid being exposed to dangerous air. “A lot of my constituents are worried about their children and long-term health effects,” she said. 

Rivas’ proposal is one of many that seeks to minimize the immediate health impacts of widespread smoke, recognizing it will take many years — and colossal amounts of money — to address the root causes. 

Forest Management and Climate Change

Forests across the western U.S. are overgrown, filled with bone-dry vegetation that fuel catastrophic fires. The Golden State saw its most active wildfire season in history last year, with 4.3 million acres burned, nearly 10,500 structures damaged or destroyed and 33 deaths. Over 2 million acres have burned so far this year. 

Both Democrats and Republicans said the investigation showed more aggressive forest management is needed.

“The short and long term [solutions] come down to management of the lands where the fire starts,” said Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a Republican whose district in rural Northern California includes areas where residents breathe smoke three months a year.

He says thinning forestlands has gotten harder due to increased regulations. Projects can take years due to lengthy environmental reviews and the bureaucratic approval process.

Forest management does not mean “clear cutting” or removing all trees, LaMalfa said, adding that he and other lawmakers have been advocating for a variety of targeted management techniques, including forest thinning and prescribed burning. The California Legislature passed bills this year to change liability laws and create a $20 million insurance liability fund to encourage more prescribed burns.

Low- and moderate-intensity fire is a natural part of the forest ecosystem. But a century of aggressive forest suppression has snuffed out these so-called “good fires,” leading to a dangerous buildup of undergrowth. Fire scientists say state and federal governments need to substantially increase their forest management efforts.

For the government’s part, the ambition is there, but execution still lags. Last August, California entered into an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service to each perform fire prevention work on 500,000 acres annually in the state by 2025. The Forest Service remains well short of that goal, treating about 120,000 acres in the last year. Cal Fire was unable to provide up-to-date numbers on its progress towards the target.

Democrats also advocate for more aggressive action on climate change.

The Build Back Better Act — a $3.5 trillion, 2,000-plus page bill that captures many of President Biden’s policy priorities — includes several ambitious climate change proposals. 

The legislation, currently being negotiated in Congress, includes a $150 billion program that would pay utility companies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. It’s unclear whether that provision will make it into the final legislation, however, as it has received pushback from Sen. Joe Manchin, a centrist Democrat whose vote is seen as crucial.

Fire scientists say climate change has set the stage for wildfires to burn out of control in recent years. LaMalfa, echoing some fellow Republicans, says prioritizing land management is "a lot better than this continued fight over what we're going to [do about] climate change.” Fire and climate experts argue a long-term plan for addressing climate change is essential for curbing wildfires, in addition to forest management. 

Protecting Essential Workers

State lawmakers in California passed legislation this year to protect agricultural workers from the increasing dangers of wildfire smoke. And they’re looking to build on it next session.

Assembly Bill 73, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed last week, ensures that the state’s stockpile of N95 masks is available to farm workers during severe smoke events. It also requires employers to provide workers with training in the language they speak on the dangers posed by wildfire smoke.

Democratic Assemblyman Robert Rivas, who represents nearly 100,000 farmworkers, authored the bill to “ensure that we're doing all we can to protect the health and safety of such a vulnerable population of workers.”

Rivas says employers were already required to provide workers with masks, but struggled to acquire adequate PPE inventory.

Next session, Rivas may revive proposed requirements left out of the final bill. For example, an early version would have created “strike teams” deployed by the state to ensure employer compliance.

Congressman Jared Huffman, a Democratic member of the U.S. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, said it was time to start making policies for “smoke refugees” — for example, federally funded air shelters for residents who need a safe place to breathe. 

“Almost like evacuation centers [on] one of these days where the air is just too unhealthy to breathe,” said Huffman, whose sprawling Northern California district runs from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border. “At least people that have fragile conditions, who maybe can't afford air conditioning or don't have things in their home to protect them, can go to these places and have quality air to breathe.”

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA), along with several other Democrats, introduced a bill this year that would allow the president to declare a “smoke emergency. The federal government could then help communities establish smoke shelters and relocate vulnerable populations. 

Deteriorating air quality and smoke exposure from the Western wildfires are dangerous symptoms of the climate crisis that require urgent attention. Lives and livelihoods are at stake. https://t.co/zbDyVOkcdu

— Alex Padilla (@AlexPadilla4CA) October 1, 2021

Better Data, Public Health Tracking

State and federal lawmakers also said they need reliable and comprehensive data in order to take action.

“Data in this area is absolutely critical [to] understanding the detrimental health impacts from wildfire smoke,” said Assemblyman Rivas.

The California Newsroom’s investigation relied on satellite images of smoke plumes rather than data on air quality itself, because air monitoring stations maintained by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are spread inconsistently across the country, with many gaps in rural and urban areas most impacted by wildfire smoke.

At the federal level, Senate Democrats introduced the “Smoke Planning and Research Act,” which would set aside $20 million in research funding for the EPA to study the health impacts of smoke and create a grant program to fund research efforts at the local level.

This year, the California Legislature passed Assembly Bill 619, which requires the state Department of Public Health to develop safety guidelines for counties to implement during dangerous air quality days. The bill is on Newsom’s desk. 


Follow us for more stories like this

CapRadio provides a trusted source of news because of you.  As a nonprofit organization, donations from people like you sustain the journalism that allows us to discover stories that are important to our audience. If you believe in what we do and support our mission, please donate today.

Donate Today  

    Related Content

  • Alison Saldanha and George LeVines

    Dangerous Air: We Mapped The Rise In Wildfire Smoke Across America. Here’s How We Did It

    Tuesday, September 28, 2021
    The analysis is based on more than 10 years of data collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and reveals a startling increase in the number of days residents are breathing smoke at the ZIP code level.
  • Photo Illustration by Marissa Espiritu / Photo by Andrew Nixon

    Dangerous Air: As California burns, America breathes toxic smoke

    Tuesday, September 28, 2021
    Smoke from wildfires, which have burned millions of acres in California alone, is choking vast swaths of the country.
  • Environment
  • State Government
  •  

Scott Rodd

State Government Reporter

Scott Rodd previously covered government and legal affairs for the Sacramento Business Journal. Prior to the Business Journal, Scott worked as a freelance reporter in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.  Read Full Bio 

 @SRodd_CPR Email Scott Rodd

Sign up for ReCap and never miss the top stories

Delivered to your inbox every Friday.

 

Check out a sample ReCap newsletter.

Thanks for subscribing!

Thank you for signing up for the ReCap newsletter! We'll send you an email each Friday with the top stories from CapRadio.

Browse all newsletters
 We Get Support From:
Become a Supporter 
 We Get Support From:
Become a Supporter 

Back to Top

  • CapRadio

    7055 Folsom Boulevard
    Sacramento, CA 95826-2625

    • (916) 278-8900
    • Toll-free (877) 480-5900
    • Email Us
    • Submit a News Tip
  • Contact Us

  • About Us

    • Contact Us / Feedback
    • Coverage
    • Directions
    • Careers & Internships
    • Mission / Vision / Core Values
    • Press
    • Staff Directory
    • Board of Directors
  • Listening Options

    • Mobile App
    • On Air Schedules
    • Smart Speakers
    • Playlist
    • Podcasts
    • RSS
  • Connect With Us

    •  Facebook
    •  Twitter
    •  Instagram
    •  YouTube
  • Donate

  • Listen

  • Newsletters

CapRadio stations are licensed to California State University, Sacramento. © 2022, Capital Public Radio. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Website Feedback FCC Public Files: KXJZ KKTO KUOP KQNC KXPR KXSR KXJS. For assistance accessing our public files, please call 916-278-8900 or email us.