As heat gets more extreme, pregnant farmworkers are increasingly at risk

By DORANY PINEDA, MELINA WALLING and ANNIKA HAMMERSCHLAG

One hot day last summer, Clarisa Lugo was inspecting and counting corn and soybean plants in the middle of a 300-acre farm field in Illinois when she started throwing up and panting. Her heart raced, she stopped sweating and a pounding headache didn’t go away for hours.

The heat index — a blend of temperature and humidity — had hit 105 F, and Lugo, who was eight months pregnant, was suffering from heat illness.

“I remember that that day it was hard for me to go back to normal” despite drinking water and putting ice on her body, she recalled.

Agricultural workers are already among the most vulnerable to extreme heat, and pregnant workers are coming under greater risk as temperatures rise because of climate change. Many in the U.