One of the ways to protect vulnerable populations from climate change is to create plans that consider their health and well-being — not only in emergencies, but also when considering future infrastructure.
Such planning can help health workers decide where to invest in health programs, said Jeremy Hess, MD, MPH, co-director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the University of Washington.
“In terms of adapting to the climate change we are experiencing and will continue to in the future…it’s important to use vulnerability assessments for communities already suffering from climate-related diseases and to get a sense of how much those climate sensitive disease burdens will change over time, and to invest in essential public health, (such as) making sure that we’re doing the proper surveillance,” Hess told The Nation’s Health.
In Denver, where heat-related mortality is projected to double by 2050, public health and environmental health researchers at the City and County of Denver’s Department of Environmental Health are working on creating a mapping tool to release in early 2017 that will include a climate and health equity vulnerability index, said Elizabeth Babcock, manager of air, water and climate at the City and County of Denver’s Department of Environmental Health.
The tool can have a long-lasting impact, as city planners will be updating every neighborhood plan over the next five years, she said.
“We can look at what neighborhoods will be affected by heat and (ask) ‘Can we mitigate by planting more trees? Can we mitigate air quality concerns for how close we build next to roadways or where we place schools?’” Babcock told The Nation’s Health. “We’re hoping this tool can be used citywide and by external partners to see which areas have the most vulnerable populations and what can we do about it.”
The project in Denver is one of more than a dozen urban health departments that received grants in 2015 from the Public Health Institute’s Center for Climate Change and Health to participate in a Climate Change and Public Health Learning Collaborative. Funded by the Kresge Foundation, the grants are meant to help departments beef up their approaches to tackling climate change and health equity in their communities.
One of those departments is the Maricopa County Department of Public Health in Arizona. Department staff are surveying residents who participate in home meal delivery programs about their awareness of heat, how they adapt and their availability and use of air conditioning. If they are not using air conditioning, which is recommended during periods of high heat, they are asked about financial or technical barriers.
Prior to the grant, the department surveyed populations that use the county’s cooling centers and found that many were low-income or in some cases, people who were homeless.
“We often see that those that are most vulnerable for heat-related illness are people without a lot of disposable resources, or access to resources or programs,” said Kate Goodin, MPH, MS, the department’s epidemiology and data services program manager. “It’s a health equity issue for us.”
APHA highlighted the work of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-supported state and local plans that address vulnerable populations in its March 2015 report “Adaptation in Action: Grantee Success Stories from CDC’s Climate and Health Program.”
The program supports cities and states working to adapt to or reduce the effects of climate change, such as New York City’s Climate and Health Program, which surveyed residents vulnerable to heat-related health conditions and found nearly 50 percent surveyed stayed indoors in extreme heat, even if they lacked a way to cool down while there.
For more information on climate change, visit www.epa.gov and www.apha.org/climate-change.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
