What's New
NEW! CDC’s Climate and Health Program released “Heat Exposure and Cardiovascular Health: A Summary for Health Departments. pdf icon[PDF – 7 MB]” This document gives an overview of our current understanding of heat exposure and its impact on cardiovascular health outcomes, an overview of the medications that may exacerbate heat-related cardiovascular illness, and a summary of the interaction between extreme heat and air pollutants and their collective impact on cardiovascular health. Additionally, this document summarizes epidemiologic evidence and identifies gaps in the peer-reviewed literature on the effectiveness of strategies and interventions to protect against heat-related cardiovascular disease and death.
NEW! CDC has created a technical guidance document titled “Evidence on the Use of Indoor Air Filtration as an Intervention for Wildfire Smoke Pollutant Exposure. pdf icon[PDF – 3.61 MB]” The document summarizes the available peer-reviewed literature about the effectiveness of air filtration as an intervention to decrease exposure to wildfire smoke and protect health when sheltering indoors. It describes the different types of air filtering technology and metrics for measuring air quality and summarizes the literature on their effectiveness in protecting against the harmful air pollutants in wildfire smoke.
NEW! The CDC Foundation’s Community Capacity Assessment for Climate Healthexternal icon details the assessment of 21 urban jurisdictions’ capacity to prepare for and address the potential health effects of climate change, including increased heat-related illness, waterborne disease, shifts in vector-borne disease, and the physical and mental effects of extreme weather events.
NEW! CDC’s Climate and Health Program has launched a new ArcGIS StoryMapexternal icon titled “Extreme Heat Adaptation: How the Climate-Ready States and Cities Initiative (CRSCI) Grant Recipients are Preparing for and Responding to Increasing Temperatures.” This StoryMap showcases extreme heat adaptation strategies taken by the Climate and Health Program’s health department partners and provides tools and resources to equip communities to take action. Access the StoryMap here: https://arcg.is/rjL5rexternal icon
NEW! NACCHO, with support from CDC’s Climate and Health Program, plans to award up to three entities between $16,000 and $24,000 each. This funding will supplement ongoing climate change and health adaptation initiatives in local health departments.
Applicants must submit their PDF application to Amy Chang, NACCHO’s Senior Program Analyst, at achang@naccho.org. Applications are due by 11:59 PM ET, Thursday, October 22, 2020.
Learn more and download the application below.
Download the Request for Applications (RFA) pdf icon[PDF – 113 KB]external icon
Download the application pdf icon[PDF – 61 KB]external icon
NEW! Each region of the United States experiences climate change and its impacts on health differently. The new document “Preparing for the Regional Health Impacts of Climate Change in the United States” pdf icon[PDF – 4 MB] describes the various health impacts climate change will have on different regions of the United States, actions taken by the CDC Climate and Health Program’s health department partners to prepare for and respond to climate change in their communities, and relevant tools and resources.
NEW! CDC Heat & Health Tracker is launched. This first-of-its-kind, online tool is designed to help emergency and public health planners prepare for and respond to extreme heat events.
NEW! Heat-Related Deaths — United States, 2004–2018. From 2004 through 2018, an average of 700 heat-related deaths occurred in the United States annually.
NEW! Climate Change and Children’s Health (web-based course)external icon. This course teaches users about the definition of “climate change,” explains the “Greenhouse Effect,” identifies common health impacts associated with a changing climate, and more.
NEW! CDC’s Climate and Health Program, in partnership with the National Indian Health Board is
announcing three new mini-grants to Tribes as part of the Climate-Ready Tribes Initiativeexternal icon. These mini-grants will support the development of climate and environmental health communication materials. The three Tribes are:
- Seneca Nation of Indians
- Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska
- Greenville Rancheria
Each of these awardees will develop education and communications materials raising awareness of climate and health in a culturally appropriate way.
NEW! CDC’s Climate and Health Program has launched a technical report on heat response plans pdf icon[PDF – 14 MB]. The document is intended to give a summary of extreme heat, the health burden of heat exposure, the impacts of climate change, and components and effectiveness of heat response plans with a focus on relevant peer-reviewed literature and existing heat response plans. Resources and examples of successful implementation and potential collaborative efforts are included.
NEW! In January 2020 the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), with support from CDC, launched an Interactive Climate Adaptation Mapexternal icon which showcases state and territorial health agency climate adaptation plans and resources. The map is located on ASTHO’s Climate Change webpageexternal icon. To let ASTHO know about a state or territorial health agency that has completed an adaptation plan or has contributed to a multi-agency plan not represented on the map, contact Kathy Dolan.
NEW! The Kaw Nation, Pala Band of Mission Indians, and Lummi Nation have released a series of communication products as part of their 2019 projects supported by CDC’s Climate and Health Program in partnership with the National Indian Health Board (NIHB). The Kaw Nation has a series of fact sheets on air qualitypdf iconexternal icon, extreme precipitationpdf iconexternal icon, rising temperatures and humiditypdf iconexternal icon, and vector-borne diseasepdf iconexternal icon. The Pala Band of Mission Indians created fact sheets on drought, elevated temperatures, storms and flooding, and wildfireexternal icon. Additional information about this work is available at the Climate-Ready Tribes Initiativeexternal icon website.
NEW! CDC’s Climate and Health Program has launched a guide to support health department staff in conducting cross-sector outreach for climate adaptation planningpdf icon. Health departments have a key role to play in helping states, cities, and tribes prepare for and prevent the public health impacts of climate change. The ten sectors included in this guide can be important partners for effective climate adaptation planning: Agriculture, Emergency Response & Disaster Preparedness, Energy & Utilities, Healthcare, Meteorology & Climatology, Sustainability & Green Design, Transportation Planning Urban Planning & Land Use, Water Utilities, Sewer & Watershed Management, and Wildland Management & Forestry. The PDF describes what each sector does, how they work on climate and health, and ways health departments can consider collaborating with these sectors.
NEW! Animated video describing the Building Resistance Against Climate Effects (BRACE) framework.
NEW! From 2017–2019, the National Indian Health Board worked with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community (Swinomish) through the Climate Ready Tribes project which is funded by CDC’s Climate and Health Program. For the project, Swinomish adapted the Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) framework to better reflect indigenous health definitions and priorities.
Swinomish has developed a series of online, freely accessible modules that describe why and how Swinomish modified BRACE (module 1external icon). Swinomish has also provided an example of how the tribe used the indigenized BRACE framework in a climate and health assessment project (module 2external icon). Other tribes may tailor the process and methods for adapting BRACE in their own communities. Read more hereexternal icon.
- Evidence on the Use of Indoor Air Filtration as an Intervention for Wildfire Smoke Pollutant Exposure: A Summary for Health Departments pdf icon[PDF – 3.61 MB]
- Climate and Health: A Guide for Cross-Sector Collaboration pdf icon[PDF – 13 MB]
- Evidence on the use of Integrated Mosquito Management to Reduce the Risk of West Nile Outbreak after a Flooding Event pdf iconpdf icon[PDF – 13 MB]
- Coastal Flooding, Climate Change, and Your Health: What You Can Do to Prepare Cdc-pdf pdf icon[PDF – 14.7 MB]
- Climate Change and Extreme Heat: What You Can Do to Prepare Cdc-pdf pdf icon[PDF – 8MB]
- Health Harm Cards: Climate’s Effect on Health pdf icon[PDF – 8 MB]
- Infographic: Climate and Community Health pdf icon[PDF – 452 KB]
- Climate and Health Planning Worksheet: Preparing a Coordinated Community Response pdf icon[PDF – 150 KB]
- How Climate Affects Community Health: A Social Media Toolkit pdf icon[PDF – 3 MB]
The Climate and Health Program’s AMPLIFY webinar series, facilitated by Marketing for Change, is designed to help state and local health departments more effectively communicate the health impacts of climate change in their communities.