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A handful of California lawmakers want to avoid future mask shortages while wildfires are raging.
When smoke filled the Central Valley sky in late summer and early fall this year, farmworkers were still harvesting in the fields. California requires agricultural employers to supply masks to outdoor workers when the air quality is poor enough. But this year, that was a tough rule to follow.
The pandemic increased demand on medical-grade face masks, or N95s, and administrative delays at government agencies created a backlog on supply for farmworkers.
So the people who pick crops for the world market had to make do with homemade face coverings, said Hernan Hernandez, executive director of the California Farmworker Foundation.
Monday, December 14, 2020 | Sacramento, CA
A farmworker, considered an essential worker under the current COVID-19 pandemic guidelines, covers his face as he works at a flower farm Wednesday, April 15, 2020, in Santa Paula, Calif.
AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez
When smoke filled the Central Valley sky in late summer and early fall this year, farmworkers were still harvesting in the fields. California requires agricultural employers to supply masks to outdoor workers when the air quality is poor enough. But this year, that was a tough rule to follow.
The pandemic increased demand on medical-grade face masks, or N95s, and administrative delays at government agencies created a backlog on supply for farmworkers.