# Farmworker Smoke and Excessive Heat Protection Act of 2025

This bill creates new workplace safety rules specifically for farmworkers to protect them from two serious hazards: wildfire smoke and extreme heat. Right now, farmworkers often lack basic protections when they're exposed to dangerous air quality from wildfires or working in dangerously hot conditions, and this bill aims to change that by requiring farm employers to provide protective equipment and take specific safety measures.

Here's what the bill requires farm employers to do immediately. When air quality becomes dangerous due to wildfire smoke, employers must provide farmworkers with N95 or N100 respirators (protective masks) or similar equipment certified to protect against smoke. When the air quality reaches extremely dangerous levels, workers must be required to actually use this equipment. Similarly, when temperatures become dangerously hot, employers must provide water and cooling facilities, and when heat reaches extremely dangerous levels, workers must use these protections. In both situations, farmworkers get mandatory rest breaks of at least 10 minutes every 2 hours in shaded or cooler areas where they can recover.

The bill also requires employers to provide training to farmworkers in their own language about how to use the protective equipment properly, how long it works, and what health dangers they face from smoke or heat exposure. Workers get a chance to ask questions about this training. The Department of Labor will develop sample training materials to help employers meet these requirements and will work with community organizations to reach farmworkers who might be isolated due to language barriers or geographic location. Within 90 days, the Labor Department must begin creating a more permanent, detailed safety standard that will provide at least as much protection as what's required immediately and will be at least as protective as any state-level rules already in place.