ALTADENA, Calif. (KABC) — On a warm Thursday morning, workers wearing personal protective equipment gathered in Altadena and sang, “Put on your mask while you work” in Spanish.
It’s the warning from an organization that just released a new report that found many workers in the fire disaster zone are not wearing PPE.
“For many, these are just workers, whose work is invisible, but not for us,” said Pablo Alvarado, the director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON.)
NDLON, alongside the University of Illinois Chicago, conducted a so-called “windshield survey,” driven by 240 active worksites in Altadena.
“Urban wildfires create enormously dangerous conditions with a lot of toxins in the air on the surfaces and in the soil,” said Nik Theodore, professor of Urban Planning and Policy at the University of Illinois Chicago and author of the report.
The survey found that roughly 73% of those on the active work sites wore hard hats. About 20% wore a respiratory mask and 9% wore a Tyvek coverall or something similar.
“There are very real concerns about the long term health impacts that are facing these workers that are doing this vital work,” said Theodore.
“They didn’t give us any masks, no protection for work,” said Bilma Santiago, who was offered a job cleaning a home. But it wasn’t until she arrived that she realized the home was in the fire zone in the Pacific Palisades.
Santiago said she left, scared, after she felt burning in her eyes and throat.
Ricardo Milo is part of a brigade of immigrant workers who NDLON helped train for safe hazardous cleanup. He worries about those who are not protected.
“It’s very dangerous for them. In a couple of years, you can see the difference. It’s important,” said Milo.
“We call disasters like this silent killers, and the reason why we do that is because people really don’t see the effects of working in debris like this,” said Brandon Lamar, president of the Pasadena chapter of the NAACP.
The report also includes recommendations for employers and public entities.
“We need better education and training for workers, residents, and employers,” said Cal Soto, director of workers’ rights and staff attorney at NDLON.
The organization also calls for proper rest breaks to enable the wearing of PPE in high temperatures, urges public agencies to distribute PPE, conduct education and worksite inspections, and said comprehensive research is needed to understand the risks in these fire recovery zones.
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