Project

Monitoring Health Impacts from Extreme Heat Events

Status: Completed
Operational Plan: 2017 - 2018

Extreme heat events can impact human health and lead to school and work absenteeism, productivity losses, and high health costs in local communities. We are sharing tools and lessons learned from our CEC 2015–2016 pilot project to expand capacity in communities and public health education organizations in North America to help healthcare professionals anticipate, assess, and prevent negative health outcomes from extreme heat events.

As a result of this CEC project:

• An increased number of public health agencies serving communities in North America now have the capacity to monitor health outcomes related to extreme heat events, and tools for identifying vulnerable populations and treating these health outcomes.
• The British Columbia Centre for Disease Control has developed technology that uses historical and real-time data to predict probable final effects during extreme heat events.
• In the municipality of Juarez, Chihuahua, a real-time heat alert system compiles health reports and simultaneously collects data on heat-related illnesses from clinics to report on the severity of extreme heat-related health impacts.
• In Pinal County, Arizona, analyses of data on heat-related illnesses make it possible to identify vulnerable populations and improve emergency response during extreme heat events.