SALEM — Farmworker advocates are so far pleased with emergency rules adopted by Oregon OSHA to protect workers from extreme heat and wildfire smoke, though they say more education is needed to make sure everyone is aware of the new mandates.

On July 8, the state’s workplace health and safety agency announced a rule requiring employers to provide sufficient shade and drinking water when the heat index exceeds 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and regular rest periods when the heat index exceeds 90 degrees.

The rule came on the heels of a “heat dome” that enveloped the Pacific Northwest in late June, with temperatures above 100 degrees. One farmworker, 38-year-old Sebastian Francisco Perez, died of an apparent heat stroke in 104-degree weather June 26 at Ernst Nursery and Farms in St. Paul, Ore.

Oregon OSHA wasn’t done there, adopting two more rules on Aug. 2 establishing safeguards for workers in heavy smoke and high heat in employer-provided housing.

The smoke rule requires farms and businesses to provide outdoor workers with N95 masks when the Air Quality Index, or AQI, exceeds 201. AQI is a measure of air particle pollution using a scale from 0 to 500 — anything below 50 represents good air quality, and anything above 300 represents hazardous air quality.

As for worker housing, farms must provide cooling areas for workers if they cannot maintain an indoor temperature of 78 degrees or less.

All rules are temporary and will remain in place for 180 days. An advisory committee is now working with Oregon OSHA to adopt permanent heat and smoke protections.

Reyna Lopez, executive director of the farmworkers union Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, or PCUN, said the rules are having a positive impact.

During the week of Aug. 9, which brought another multi-day, triple-digit heat wave, she said they did not hear of any more heat-related fatalities or injuries.

“The tone was just a lot more positive than it was that week of the heat dome,” Lopez said.

PCUN recently conducted surveys with 50 farmworkers in the Willamette Valley to assess how well they felt employers were complying with the rules. The vast majority, Lopez said, indicated they were being provided with enough water and shade during the extreme heat.

“Overall, people feel like there are steps being taken to follow the rules,” she said.

Since July 9, Oregon OSHA has fielded 971 workplace complaints from across the state, according to the agency’s records. Of those, 136 were marked as “heat-related.”

A Capital Press review found that, of the 136 heat-related complaints, 18 complaints were made against 12 different farms and food processing companies. Complaints ranged from not providing access to water or breaks, to workers not being trained to recognize the signs of heat-related illnesses.

Each of those complaints are “in progress,” according to Oregon OSHA.

The PCUN survey found that most workers, however, were not aware of the new rules and had not been trained by their employer. “That part seemed to be lacking a lot,” Lopez said.

Another gap, Lopez said, is whether workers are willing to take safety breaks. While hourly workers said they had no problem with rest periods, piece rate workers paid based on how much they harvest were less willing.

“Every minute they weren’t out there, it meant money lost,” she said.

Jenny Dresler, a lobbyist for the Oregon Farm Bureau, said the biggest challenge for farms boils down to timing.

“Particularly family farms and ranches, what I’m hearing is just a sense of being overwhelmed and overloaded,” she said. “We are asking the world of these small employers, and giving them very little time to accomplish what is mandated in each of these rules.”

For example, Dresler said farms in Southern Oregon were struggling to find N95 masks on short notice as the AQI rose above 200 because of nearby wildfires.

“I was just getting endless calls saying they couldn’t find these masks,” she said. “People just panicked.”

Lesley Tamura, who grows 42 acres of pears at her family’s orchard near Hood River, Ore., said the rules are also costing money, such as buying window air conditioners for workers living in on-farm housing.

“Because the rules are constantly changing … it’s definitely difficult to keep up, and it’s definitely a financial burden,” Tamura said. “At the same time, we have to figure out what we can realistically do to protect (workers).”