The webinar "Tainted Air: Air Quality Monitoring & the Safety of Farmworkers in Wildfire Mandatory Evacuation Zones" runs 11am-12:30pm Wed. 8/14. UC Irvine Asst. Prof. Dr. Michael Méndez moderates a panel that includes PhD student Carlo Chunga Pizarro. RSVP: bit.ly/TaintedAir

The UC Irvine UCI Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy Assistant Professor Dr. Michael Méndez and PhD student/researcher Carlo Chunga Pizarro offer six policy recommendations to improve the protection and safety of agricultural workers during wildfire events. tinyurl.com/TaintedAir #AllinforAll

Maria Salinas kept harvesting grapes even as wildfire smoke choked the air & ash fell from the sky. Her saliva turned black & was rushed to the ER bc she had trouble breathing. A recent study says wildfire smoke threatens essential workers like her. apnews.com/article/28f4f7…

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara cites UC Irvine research co-authored by Assistant Professor Dr. Michael Méndez in applauding Assembly passage of a state Senate bill protecting the LGBTQ+ community after disasters. tinyurl.com/sd18senate

Scholars, scientists & activists participating in the webinar “Tainted Air: Air Quality Monitoring & the Safety of Farmworkers in Wildfire Mandatory Evacuation Zones” included UC Irvine UCI Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy Asst Prof @MikeMendezPhd & PhD student Carlo Chunga Pizarro. tinyurl.com/smokdlung

And on several occasions, the smoke was worse at night. That’s an important detail because some employers asked farmworkers to work at night due in part to cooler temperatures & less concentrated smoke, said Member Scholar Dr. Michael Méndez. ✍️ The Associated Press apnews.com/article/farmwo…

“Hundreds of farmworkers were exposed to the toxic air quality of wildfire smoke, and that could have detrimental impact to their health” - UC Irvine UCI Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy Asst. Professor Dr. Michael Méndez in an The Associated Press story picked up by several media outlets. tinyurl.com/fire-study #AllinforAll

Hot enough for you? “It’s really important to understand that heat is a silent killer. (It) requires the same amount of speed in action that large disasters get, such as wildfires” - @ucirvine UCI Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy Assistant Professor Dr. Michael Méndez tinyurl.com/HotMM

Wildfire smoke “is a toxic soup” of vegetation, chemicals, metals, building materials and more, and is “several times more harmful to humans than car exhaust” - Dr. Michael Méndez, a @ucirvine assistant professor in UCI Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy. tinyurl.com/2zcyy8zm

Need for more equitable disaster displacement data. Thank you for highlighting our research.