Massachusetts Surveys Climate Readiness of Public Health Departments; food supply; agriculture

Assessed the state public health system’s current perceived capacity to deal with projected climate risks

• The Massachusetts Department of Health worked with the regional coordinators of the five Massachusetts public health regions and the 15 Emergency Preparedness Regional Coalitions to survey the 351 municipalities in the commonwealth.
• Less than a quarter (24%) of responding health departments identified climate change preparations as a priority, yet only a fifth (21%) felt they had adequate resources to address climate risks.
• Only a small minority of respondents identified and systematically tracked many of the threats projected to be exacerbated by climate change such as indoor and outdoor air quality, respiratory conditions, and extreme heat.
• Half the respondents identified current efforts to increase resiliency to extreme heat events, such as having developed or in the process of developing plans for siting cooling centers for operation during heat events.

• The CDC's Assessing Health Vulnerability to Climate Change Guide helps health departments assess local vulnerabilities to the health hazards associated with climate change.

Identified knowledge gaps on vulnerable populations

• The majority of health departments focused vulnerable population outreach to the elderly, and to a much lesser extent, those with mobility challenges; outside of those two vulnerable populations, outreach was infrequent.
• The Department of Health report highlighted a lack of outreach and knowledge gap of vulnerable populations as a key issue to help increase adaptive capacity of local health departments.

• EPA's EJScreen is an environmental justice mapping and screening tool that combines environmental and demographic indicators.

Prepared a final report with recommended steps to increase public health system's adaptive capacity

• The Department of Public Health "should create region-specific vulnerability maps identifying and quantifying specific environmental and public health threats".
• The survey can be used in combination with Massachusetts' Environmental Public Health Data Tracking (EPHT) portal to help communities better prepare for future health impacts.

• The EPA provides climate impacts on human health.
• Massachusetts' Environmental Public Health Data Tracking (EPHT) provides tools and resources to take action to reduce risks and prevent health impacts from climate change.