Wildfires and agricultural worker injury

Abstract This paper studies the impact of wildfire smoke on workplace injuries among agricultural workers, using workers' compensation claims between 2007 and 2020. We find a substantial increase in agricultural‐worker injuries attributable to smoke‐induced PM 2.5 and wildfire smoke. Specifically, a 10 μg/m 3 increase in daily PM 2.5 exposure from wildfire smoke increases traumatic injuries by 2.9% and respiratory and cardiovascular injuries by 18.97%. We examine nonlinearities in the dose–response relationship and find that the health impacts of PM 2.5 vary across concentration levels. The effects of smoke on traumatic injuries are largest among the oldest workers (aged 60 and above) and the youngest workers (under 30), relative to those in middle age. We find that injuries occur even at levels of PM 2.5 deemed safe under current regulations. Our back‐of‐the‐envelope calculation suggests that in 2020 alone, wildfire smoke was responsible for approximately 244 additional agricultural worker injuries in California compared to a hypothetical scenario without smoke.