Leveraging Data to Drive Effective Heat Protection Policies
There is an increased need to fill data gaps on how heat impacts health to ensure the effective design and implementation of public policies at the local and state levels, as well as private policies within organizations and systems (e.g., health care). Data-informed heat policy is essential to protect communities from harmful heat exposure and adverse health outcomes. Timely, representative, accessible, and transparent data, ideally collected with and governed by communities, are also critical for calling for, evaluating, and continually improving heat policy.
Given this context, the NAM Climate Communities Network hosted a virtual convening to bring together community members, decision-makers, and others working at the intersection of heat, health, and policy. The convening spotlighted actionable strategies to address data gaps and share lessons from the design and implementation of exemplar heat and programs. The event also demonstrated how data-informed policy can reduce heat-related deaths and safeguard community health and provided attendees with practical tools, tailored to their spheres of influence, to advance effective, community-informed heat policy.
Key Themes
- Cross-sector partnerships are essential for the design and implementation of health-centered, data-driven heat protection policies. Community-based organizations, health centers, academic institutions, foundations, and government entities must act synergistically to ensure communities can mitigate and respond to adverse, heat-related health outcomes and prepare for future heat events.
- Both qualitative and quantitative data underpin comprehensive heat protection policies, programs, and tools and inform decision-making at multiple levels. These data allow individuals to assess their own health risks; clinicians to anticipate and respond to heat-related health conditions; and communities and governments to identify at-risk groups, deploy resources, and invest in infrastructure.
- Heat protection policies, programs, and data tools should be iterative and responsive to community needs, and education and communication about these initiatives should be tailored to the audience (i.e., at-risk groups, decision-makers, clinicians, etc.)
- Effective engagement with decision-makers requires navigating federal, state, and local policy processes and levers, many of which are cyclical.
Key Themes
- Cross-sector partnerships are essential for the design and implementation of health-centered, data-driven heat protection policies. Community-based organizations, health centers, academic institutions, foundations, and government entities must act synergistically to ensure communities can mitigate and respond to adverse, heat-related health outcomes and prepare for future heat events.
- Both qualitative and quantitative data underpin comprehensive heat protection policies, programs, and tools and inform decision-making at multiple levels. These data allow individuals to assess their own health risks; clinicians to anticipate and respond to heat-related health conditions; and communities and governments to identify groups, deploy resources, and invest in infrastructure.
- Heat protection policies, programs, and data tools should be iterative and responsive to community needs, and education and communication about these initiatives should be tailored to the audience (i.e., at-risk groups, decision-makers, clinicians, etc.)
- Effective engagement with decision-makers requires navigating federal, state, and local policy processes and levers, many of which are cyclical.
Introduction
Extreme heat can cause and exacerbate a variety of health conditions, particularly in the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. The urban heat island effect, often occurring in low-income areas, increases the risk of adverse heat-related health outcomes, and more heat health data mapping projects, such as NOAA’s community-led heat mapping campaigns, are needed to ensure communities can identify high-risk areas and prepare for heat events accordingly. Communities should use the data they do have to issue timely heat warnings and advisories and improve access to cooling centers and affordable energy.
Public Policy at the State and Local Levels to Protect Community Health
CalEPA’s CalHeatScore is a heat ranking system that integrates climate, weather, and public health data to convey risk of heat-related illness, provide heat forecasts, and connect the public to local resources. The tool is designed to help local and state governments, community-based organizations, the public, health care workers, and employers prepare for, understand, and make decisions about heat events. To ensure the tool remains responsive to community needs, CalEPA works with community-based organizations to co-develop training materials and engagement plans.
The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Your Heat Story mapping tool features qualitative narratives alongside quantitative temperature data. The tool was built in partnership with academic institutions, government agencies, and community organizations to enable users to engage with the lived experience of extreme heat. The NYC Heat Vulnerability Index measures the burden of heat and maps access to residential cooling, and the Climate Resiliency Advisory Network, a group of 10 community-based organizations, embedded community expertise into both of these projects and continues to inform the department’s environmental health initiatives.
Central to the Miami Heat Health Task Force’s goals was safeguarding health in high-risk communities. The group leveraged heat vulnerability index data to lower the threshold for heat warnings, created a city-level Chief Heat Officer position, and established an Extreme Heat Action Plan for Miami-Dade County that focused on education, preparation, and access to cool spaces. Collaboration between community organizations, local government, universities, nonprofits, and foundations fueled this program’s success. Data from 2023 revealed that Miami-Dade County had the lowest number of heat-related ER visits in the state despite being the hottest county, illustrating that coordinated action is key to protecting health.
Private Policy within Organizations and Systems to Protect Patients and Workers
Federally qualified health center La Clínica de La Raza, Inc. partnered with CalEPA and clinical providers to design and launch a heat text alert program that warns patients of extreme heat events and highlights precautions to take. Program feedback was positive, and patients indicated greater trust in La Clinica than in government and other authorities. Data gaps include the ability to measure the relationship between text alerts and emergency room visits as well as user feedback on whether the timing and design of the alerts are helpful.
Community health centers, which serve 1 in 10 US citizens, are well-positioned to share existing heat resources with their patients and can double as cooling centers and power hubs during heat events. The National Association of Community Health Centers underscores the importance of partnerships between health centers, community-based organizations, and universities in creating scalable programs that can inform national policies and frameworks.
Migrant Clinicians Network’s community mobilization model aims to protect workers, particularly in the construction and agriculture industries, from heat. In the model, community health centers provide energy and cooling infrastructure, as well as culturally informed care, training, and education. The model also encourages centers to leverage community partnership to build climate literacy and educate workers on their employee rights and risks of heat-related morbidities.
Resources Shared
- HeatRisk | Tracking | NCEH | CDC
- Heat Risk Clinical Alerts
- Climate Resilience Toolkit for Health Clinics | Download Now
- Heat and Health Basics - NACHC
- CHARGE Partnership
- Heat | Migrant Clinicians Network
- Heat-Related Illness and Farmworkers - Training Curriculum and Facilitator Guide | Migrant Clinicians Network
- Heat-Related Illness Clinician’s Guide - June 2021 | Migrant Clinicians Network
- Clear the Air! Protect Your Health from Bad Air | Migrant Clinicians Network
Conclusion
The Federation of American Scientists recognizes the importance of the scientific community partnering with decision-makers to transform innovative ideas into real-world impact. Legislation, regulation, reports, grants, and partnerships are a few examples of governmental levers that can help shape ideas into impact. The cyclical nature of these levers allows for continuous public input. The public can drive transformative policy by partnering with decision-makers to define the ‘why, why now, how, what, and who.’ Current policy change opportunities include expanding heat policy to protect workers from heat exposures, ensuring access to cooling spaces and affordable energy, and investing in infrastructure that allows communities to prepare for and respond to heat events.
Speaker Highlight
Cheryl Holder, Florida Clinicians for Climate Action
“The community can understand Auntie May around the corner got hospitalized because her apartment was so hot and she ended up with this. That may translate better than telling that 31 excess deaths happened because of heat. That’s how I feel we need to address how the community understands data.”
Facilitators and Speakers
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