Climate change-related rising ambient air temperatures and episodic air pollution events from wildland fires in the Western United States expose Californians to excess heat and reduced air quality which may have substantial, preventable adverse impacts on health and job performance. These direct and indirect impacts on vulnerable populations in California have been largely understudied and unaccounted for in policy planning. This project focuses on a set of vulnerable populations that share key characteristics that put them at excess risk of heat illness and wildfire-related adverse respiratory outcomes now and in the near future. It will conduct a risk assessment to characterize heat and wildfire smoke exposure risks to the following populations – warehouse and storage workers; people who are incarcerated or working in State or federal facilities; active-duty US military personnel in CA; workers at post-harvest food processing locations and other animal production; and free and incarcerated workers at wildfire firefighter camps.
Report Information
CCCA5-CNRA-CCRP-P41
Lead Principal Investigator: Elizabeth Noth
Lead Organization: The Regents of the University of California, Berkeley
The full report will be available soon.