Aug. 9 (UPI) — The Biden administration Wednesday launched the first-of-its-kind online EMS Heat Tracker portal to map emergency medical services responses to heat-related illness nationwide.
“Heat is no longer a silent killer. From coast-to-coast, communities are battling to keep people cool, safe and alive due to the growing impacts of the climate crisis,” Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “President Biden is committed to providing communities with the resources they need to stay safe.”
Becerra said the EMS HeatTracker is a powerful tool that “brings actionable information to prioritize outreach and interventions, helping prevent heat-related illnesses and death and build resilience across the nation.”
One way the new tool could be used is to help state, regional, and local government officials plan where to prioritize heat mitigation strategies, like street trees, parks and cool roofs.
The heat tracker dashboard will break down heat patients by age, race, gender and whether they live in cities, suburban, rural or frontier environments.
The dashboard tool will help gather critical data that could save lives.
“These data will help us prioritize heat mitigation strategies, outreach initiatives, and funding for energy assistance to alleviate heat stress and prevent illness in communities at greatest risk,” Assistant Secretary for Health of Health and Human Services Rachel Levine said in a statement.
She said heat-related threats are often felt most acutely by communities of color, the youngest and oldest people in communities and low-income households.
According to Dr. John Balbus, Acting Director of the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity, heat is the most lethal of all types of extreme weather and heat exposure is worsening due to climate change.
The EMS HeatTracker will be accessible through the heat.gov portal and will be updated weekly.
It includes data on clinical care and patient characteristics that’s captured in the national EMS Information System.
The goal will be to track heat-related events in pre-hospital settings using nationally submitted EMS data. All 50 states and U.S. territories Virgin Islands, Guam and Northern Mariana Islands will be submitting the data.
Tuesday the EU Copernicus Climate Change Service reported that July 2023 is officially the hottest month ever recorded on Earth. The report said daily surface air temperatures had risen drastically since 1940 and the increases are the result of human-caused “anthropogenic emissions.”
In July Biden announced new measures to protect workers and others from record-breaking deadly heat waves. He directed the Labor Department to issue Hazard Alerts during heat waves, which would provide some federal protections to workers facing the highest heat-related health risks.”
