Heat-Health Information Resources
A core component of the NIHHIS is Understanding, Communication and Education – a society that understands the risks associated with extreme heat and knows how to prepare and respond to heat waves will suffer fewer heat-related health effects and fewer deaths. The curated list of resources below come from many sources and partners including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and are recommended starting points for learning more:
Guidance and Training
- Recognizing, Preventing and Treating Heat-Related Illness: An e-learning course
This training will teach and reinforce awareness of heat-related illness among coaches, athletic trainers, students, school nurses, parents, and teachers. It will also promote the development and implementation of guidelines by these participants. - Climate Change and Extreme Heat Events Guidance
This document describes extreme heat events, how an extreme heat event threatens public health, and how to prepare for and respond to such an event. It explains how the frequency, duration, and severity of extreme heat events are increasing as a result of climate change, and includes links to local program and real-world examples from across the country. - Anticipating Hazardous Weather and Community Risk (UCAR/COMET/MetEd)
Anticipating Hazardous Weather and Community Risk, 2nd Edition provides emergency managers and other decision makers with background information about weather, natural hazards, and preparedness. - Extreme Heat and Your Health
This website provides easily accessible resources for members of the public, local health departments and other organizations, assisting ongoing outreach efforts to those most vulnerable to extreme heat. - CDC Extreme Heat Media Toolkit
This website provides resources for extreme heat messaging, including logos, web tools, media materials and outreach letters.
Data and Tools
- US Climate Resilience Toolkit
The Climate Resilience Toolkit provides resources and a framework for understanding and addressing the climate issues that impact people and their communities. - CDC Environmental Public Health Tracking Network (Climate Portal)
CDC’s Tracking Network uses data from many sources to track the effects of climate change. While there are a number of indicators related to climate change, the Tracking Network is focusing on extreme heat to better evaluate the number of heat-related deaths at the national level, while allowing for comparisons across states. These comparisons can help local communities design interventions and better understand the possible health effects and risks to specific groups of people. - CDC Extreme Heat Media Toolkit
The CDC Extreme Heat Media Toolkit provides easily accessible media resources for members of the public, local health departments, and other organizations, assisting ongoing outreach efforts to those most vulnerable to extreme heat events. - US Government Open Data – Climate
Here you can find data related to climate change, and specifically heat, that can help inform and prepare America’s communities, businesses, and citizens. - USGCRP Metadata Access Tool for Climate and Health
The Metadata Access Tool for Climate and Health (MATCH) is a publicly accessible, online tool for researchers that offers centralized access to metadata ‐ standardized contextual information ‐ about thousands of government-held datasets related to health, the environment, and climate-science.
Publications
- Johnson, D, A Stanforth, V Lulla, G Luber. Developing an applied extreme heat vulnerability index utilizing socioeconomic and environmental data. Applied Geography. Vol 35 (1–2): 23–31, 2012.
- Johnson, DP, JS Wilson, and G Luber. Socioeconomic indicators of heat-related health risk supplemented with remotely sensed data. International Journal of Health Geographics. Vol. 8:57, 2009.
- Berko J, Ingram D, Saha S, and Parker J. Deaths Attributed to Heat, Cold, and Other Weather Events in the United States, 2006–2010. National Health Statistics Reports, Number 76. National Center for Health Statistics, US Department of Health and Human Services, 2014.
- CDC. Climate Change and Extreme Heat Events.
- CDC. Recognizing, Preventing and Treating Heat-Related Illness: An e-learning course. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevent (CDC), 2009.
- Golden J, Hartz D, Brazel A, Luber G, and Phelan P. A biometeorology study of climate and heat-related morbidity in Phoenix from 2001 to 2006. Intl J of Biometeorology, 2008.
- Hess JJ, Saha S, Luber G. Summertime Acute Heat Illness in US Emergency Departments from 2006-2010: Analysis of a Nationally Representative Sample. Environ Health Perspect 122(11):1209-15, 2014.
- Lin S, Hsu WH, Van Zutphen AR, Saha S, Luber G, & Hwang SA. Excessive heat and respiratory hospitalizations in New York state: estimating current and future public health burden related to climate change. Environmental health perspectives, 120(11), 1571, 2012.
- Luber G and McGeehin M. Climate Change and Extreme Heat Events. Am J Prev Med. 35 (5): 429-435, 2008.