National heat strategy seeks to protect people against extreme weather
The federal government is treating extreme heat as an economic and public health concern.
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The federal government is treating extreme heat as an economic and public health concern, and this week the federal interagency National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) released a National Heat Strategy for 2024-2030 that aims to coordinate planning for extreme heat events.
The federal departments and agencies involved in developing the strategy noted the impact of heat on the health and wellbeing of humans, animals and ecosystems, as well as associated economic and societal consequences.
Roughly 1,220 people are killed by extreme heat in the U.S. every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), making heat the nation's leading weather-related killer.
"Extreme heat is not just an environmental crisis, it's a serious threat to our public health – and communities across the country are struggling to respond," said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. "What we're facing today wasn't what we were experiencing 30 or 40 years ago. This is a different world we are in."
WHAT'S THE IMPACT?
The strategy builds on the continuing efforts of 29 federal departments and agencies within NIHHIS, led by the CDC, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the HHS Office of Climate Change and Health Equity (OCCHE), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
HHS is already taking some steps, including using the CDC's experimental HeatRisk tool, which provides a seven-day heat forecast nationwide that tells users when temperatures may reach levels that could harm human health.
The department is also employing the CDC's Clinical Guidance on Heat and Health, developed for clinicians, which takes a patient-centered approach to protecting at-risk individuals when temperatures rise, including children with asthma, pregnant women and people with cardiovascular disease.
Other tools include:
- a new Heat and Health Index tool launched by OCCHE and the CDC, to provide zip code-level heat-related illness and community-characteristics data to measure vulnerability to heat nationwide.
- an updated version of the EMS Heat Tracker, launched last year by the OCCHE and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which tracks Emergency Medical Services responses to heat-related emergencies.
- an updated Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Cooling Season Toolkit that provides more information about cooling assistance from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).
THE LARGER TREND
During a rough period of heat last month, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued an advisory warning that more than 72 million people were under heat advisories and excessive heat watches and warnings across much of the Midwest, Great Lakes, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.
Extreme heat is the leading weather-related cause of death in the U.S., FEMA said. Weather experts say the atmospheric heat dome is causing record temperatures in parts of the Northeast, and is the strongest in several decades, according to The Wall Street Journal. Heat domes usually form in the South and Southwest during the summer, and are rarely seen in the Northeast in mid-June.
A heat dome over the Pacific Northwest in 2021 caused an estimated 650 heat-related deaths in the U.S. and Canada, according to the WSJ report.
Jeff Lagasse is editor of Healthcare Finance News.
Email: jlagasse@himss.org
Healthcare Finance News is a HIMSS Media publication.
