During the last several days, outdoor workers have gotten their first real taste of the smoke rules this summer.

As an asthmatic who happens to be a farmer and a person who believes everyone should have the right to govern their own health choices, I tested the impact of air quality while working in our fields.

During the first one-hour test with an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 161, I went out and helped move water without a mask. By the end of the hour, I was short of breath, had chest pain, a cough, and needed to use my inhaler and steam to recover. This morning, I repeated the test in an AQI of 151, with an N95 mask. By the end of the hour, I was still short of breath but recovered with some rest indoors and was able to avoid my inhaler. In the spirit of all good tests, my husband, who has no breathing problems to speak of, was the control. In both tests, he was perfectly fine.

My “test” is hardly scientific, but it does illustrate the need for smoke rules and for caution to be exercised for specific groups of people. And labor advocates are right – working outdoors, particularly in difficult conditions, is dangerous and deserves proper thought and consideration.

The current smoke rules require employers to train employees about the hazards of smoke and other fine particulates in the air at an AQI of 69; when the AQI reaches 101, employers must require employees to wear masks with respirators. There is discussion about shifting the rules to make masks required at an AQI of 69.

It is important to understand the AQI scale and how smoke effects individuals. An AQI of 0-50 is considered “good” and has no ill-effects on anyone; 51-100 is “moderate” and may affect people who are “unusually sensitive to air quality issues”; 101-150 is “unhealthy for sensitive groups” and can cause some ill-effects for the public; 151-200 is “unhealthy” for everyone. 

We cannot legislate employees into absolute safety in the workplace. There would be no work done if we did because the safest thing to do in a workplace is nothing.

If it were left up to me, based on my “test results,” I would require N95 respirator masks to be readily available to all employees, require all employees know how to properly fit and wear N95 respirator masks, make the wearing of N95 respirator masks optional until the AQI reached 151 (“unhealthy” for everyone), and provide 10-minute rest and recovery breaks every hour for everyone when the AQI was between 101-150. In that way, the greatest number of people are being given the most flexibility during their working hours to be comfortable, protected, and, most importantly, safe.

Safety policy should be about personal empowerment for the betterment of a person’s employer and fellow employees, not policy for the sake of the most fragile person in a workplace. Accommodations can, and should be made, for those individuals quietly, privately, and without detrimentally effecting the ability of all other people to work.