Potential impacts of Washington State’s wildfire worker protection rule on construction workers

Abstract

Driven by climate change, wildfires are increasing in frequency, duration, and intensity across the Western United States. Outdoor workers are being exposed to increasing wildfire-related particulate matter and smoke. Recognizing this emerging risk, Washington adopted an emergency rule and is presently engaged in creating a permanent rule to protect outdoor workers from wildfire smoke exposure. While there are growing bodies of literature on the exposure to and health effects of wildfire smoke in the general public and wildland firefighters, there is a gap in knowledge about wildfire smoke exposure among outdoor workers generally and construction workers specifically—a large category of outdoor workers in Washington totaling 200,000 people. Several data sources were linked in this study—including state-collected employment data and national ambient air quality data—to gain insight into the risk of PM2.5 exposure among construction workers and evaluate the impacts of different air quality thresholds that would have triggered a new Washington emergency wildfire smoke rule aimed at protecting workers from high PM2.5 exposure. Results indicate the number of poor air quality days has increased in August and September in recent years. Over the last decade, these months with the greatest potential for particulate matter exposure coincided with an annual peak in construction employment that was typically 9.4–42.7% larger across Washington counties (one county was 75.8%). Lastly, the ‘encouraged’ threshold of the Washington emergency rule (20.5 μg m−3) would have resulted in 5.5 times more days subject to the wildfire rule on average across all Washington counties compared to its ‘required’ threshold (55.5 μg m−3), and in 2020, the rule could have created demand for 1.35 million N-95 filtering facepiece respirators among construction workers. These results have important implications for both employers and policy makers as rules are developed. The potential policy implications of wildfire smoke exposure, exposure control strategies, and data gaps that would improve understanding of construction worker exposure to wildfire smoke are also discussed.

Potential Impacts of Different Occupational Outdoor Heat Exposure Thresholds among Washington State Crop and Construction Workers and Implications for Other Jurisdictions

“…Finally, though we focused on NAICS subsectors in agriculture that are likely to include outdoor workers (NAICS 111 and 1151), we included all of construction (NAICS 236, 237, and 238). A recent expert review of NAICS construction subsectors in WA in 2022 determined that NAICS codes with a high potential for outdoor work constitute 28.5% of construction workers in WA (including NAICS 237/civil and environmental engineering construction and NAICS 238161/residential roofing contractors) and those with medium potential make up 68.1% of construction workers in WA (including NAICS 236/construction of buildings, NAICS 238212/nonresidential electrical contractors, NAICS 238222/nonresidential plumbing and HVAC contractors, and NAICS 238221/residential plumbing and HVAC contractors) [ 35 ].…”

“…WA agricultural workers include seasonal workers and US H-2A guest workers from other countries, who are hired on temporary work permits by agricultural employers [ 34 ]. Commercial and residential construction employment has been generally increasing in WA, with seasonal trends peaking in the summer months in urban areas of Eastern and Western WA [ 35 ]. Public administration also has high HRI worker compensation claim rates in WA, with the highest third-quarter public administration HRI rates among fire protection [ 2 ].…”

“…We obtained WA state employment data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) [ 42 ] by month, county, and 6-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes for NAICS 236, 237, and 238 (construction) and 111 (crop production) and 1151 (Support Activities for Crop Production). Most construction workers were considered to have a high or medium probability of outdoor work [ 35 ], while crop production and support activities for crop production were assumed to have a high potential for outdoor work. QCEW includes data from employers who report their employment and wages to pay unemployment insurance taxes.…”

The impact of wildfire smoke and temperature on traumatic worker injury claims, Oregon 2009–2018

“… 24 As climate change continues to influence extreme heat and wildfire events, outdoor workers will be the first to experience these conditions which pose a significant health risk in uncontrolled worksite environments. 25 , 26 Identifying climatological factors that contribute to the injury burden of workers must be a priority as climate change further alters outdoor worksite environments.…”

“…Consequently, a combination of climate change, land management, human activity, and the invasion of nonnative invasive grasses is predicted to increase the area burned and fire frequency across the Pacific Northwest and other areas around the world 24 . As climate change continues to influence extreme heat and wildfire events, outdoor workers will be the first to experience these conditions which pose a significant health risk in uncontrolled worksite environments 25,26 . Identifying climatological factors that contribute to the injury burden of workers must be a priority as climate change further alters outdoor worksite environments.…”