Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of extreme heat and wildfire events, placing outdoor workers at heightened risk for respiratory, cardiovascular, and renal illnesses. Effective, timely interventions are urgently needed—especially as concurrent heat and smoke exposures amplify risks and complicate self-protection. This project’s aims are: 1) expand an existing protocol for rapid detection of wildfire smoke exposure in WA state to include extreme heat exposure; 2) conduct individual interviews with current WA state outdoor farmworkers to identify barriers and facilitators of self-protective actions and perceptions of research on extreme smoke and heat events; and 3) disseminate findings to stakeholders for potential future applications in rapid response research.
This project aimed to recruit 10-20 current outdoor farmworkers for individual interviews about their experiences with extreme heat and smoke episodes, barriers to self-protection, and perceptions of rapid response research. To date, they have recruited 13 participants and interviewed 13 participants.
They are completing transcripts and conducting thematic analyses, which will be available for future dissemination.
This project is using GitHub to share all materials related to smoke and heat surveillance. They have completed preparation of all code and documentation, which should be sufficient for future users to apply the tool in rapid research or intervention contexts. The tool provides automated reports identifying individual farm parcels in Washington state that experienced extreme heat, wildfire smoke, or combined heat and wildfire smoke with a one-day lag. All materials will be available soon via a public GitHub link.
Christine Loftus, PhD, MPH, MS, University of Washington. Rapid Identification of Extreme Exposures Impacting PNW Agricultural Workers: Novel Tools and Methods for Time-Sensitive Research and Intervention.