John Lal has worked “outside, all day, every day” since 2017, installing pipes and fixing roadways throughout King County. His work tends to ramp up in the summer months when regional wildfires increasingly choke construction sites with smoke.
“By the end of the day, when you get home and you blow your nose, you’ve got black stuff in your nostrils, a few bloody noses, you’re coughing all the time because of the smoke,” said Lal, a member of Laborers’ Local Union 242, which represents workers in the building trades in King County. “It just sucks.”
While Lal said his current employer has always made him feel comfortable enough to take breaks and adjust his pace when he feels fatigued, not everyone is so lucky.
