Issue Category: Environmental Health
Ten Top Priorities for Prevention
Health Problems Heat Up: Climate Change and the Public’s Health
«state» «haveNotHave»
Media Contact: Laura Segal (202) 223-9870 x 27 or [email protected].
(October 26, 2009, Washington, DC) — Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) released a new report today that finds only five states have published a strategic climate change plan that includes a public health response. The five states include California, Maryland, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Washington. This includes planning for health challenges and emergencies expected to develop from natural disasters, pollution, and infectious diseases as temperatures and sea levels rise.
Twenty-eight additional states«haveaplan» have published a strategic climate change plan, but the plan does not include a public health response to climate change. Seventeen states«donthaveaplan» have not published a strategic climate change plan.
The Health Problems Heat Up: Climate Change and the Public’s Health report examines U.S. planning for changing health threats posed by climate change, such as heat-related sickness, respiratory infections, natural disasters, changes to the food supply, and infectious diseases carried by insects.
“The changing environment has serious ramifications for our health,” said Jeff Levi, PhD, Executive Director of TFAH. “In the near future, more extreme weather events, rising temperatures, and worsening air quality mean we’ll see an upswing in climate-related illnesses and injuries. As countries around the world work to address climate change, federal, state, and local governments around the United States need to ramp up activities to protect people from the harms it poses to our health.”
“States are already overwhelmed by existing public health responsibilities, so we face a serious challenge as we see these new climate change related problems on the horizon. States and communities will need more resources to effectively plan and prepare for them,” Levi continued.
The report contains a number of state-based indicators related to efforts in the state or federal funding the state has received to prepare for public health implications of climate change.
«state»: Climate Change Public Health Indicators |
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|---|---|
| 1. Is «state» one of five states that have published a climate change plan detailing the role of public health in preventing and preparing for climate change? | «publicRole» |
| 2. Is «state» one of 12 states that have a climate change commission or advisory panel that includes a representative from the state department of public health? | «stateCommission» |
| 3. Is «state» one of 22 states that received grants from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for Environmental Health Tracking in 2009? | «cdcEnvironmental» |
| 4. Is «state» one of 33 states that received grants from the CDC for asthma prevention in 2009? | «cdcAsthma» |
| 5. Is «state» one of 49 states that received funding for an Arbovirus Vector-borne Disease Surveillance System (ArboNET) — used to track diseases spread through mosquitoes and other insects — in 2009? | «arbovirus» |
According to Health Problems Heat Up, communities across the United States are at-risk for negative health effects associated with climate change. Urban communities face natural disasters, such as floods and heat waves. Rural communities may be threatened by food insecurity due to shifts in crop growing conditions, reduced water resources, heat, and storm damage. Costal and low-lying areas could see an increase in floods, hurricanes, and tropical storms. Mountain regions are at risk of increasing heat and vector-borne diseases due to the melting of mountain glaciers and changes in snow melt. And communities around the country could experience new insect-based infectious diseases that used to only be affiliated with high temperature regions.
The report contains a series of policy recommendations, including:
- Congress should provide funding for state and local health departments to conduct needs assessments and strategic planning for public health considerations of climate change;
- The White House and the federal interagency working group on climate change should take into account the potential health implications of policies and programs under consideration;
- Congress should increase support for tracking of environmental effects on health and research into the health effects of climate change;
- CDC should set national guidelines and measures for core public health functions related to climate change, and in exchange for federal funding for climate change planning and response, CDC should require states and localities to report the findings to both the public and the federal government;
- All state and local health departments should include public health considerations as part of climate change plans, including conducting needs assessments, developing strategic plans, and creating public education campaigns; and
- Special efforts must be made to address the impact of climate change on at-risk and vulnerable communities.
The U.S. Senate is in the process of developing comprehensive climate change legislation. The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a climate change bill that would direct the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to create a national strategic action plan on climate change. This plan would encourage health professionals to prepare for and respond to the impact of climate change on public health in the United States and globally. The House bill also includes a Climate Change Health Protection and Promotion Fund to provide the funds needed to develop and carry out the strategic plan.
The full Health Problems Heat Up report, including state-specific information, is available on TFAH’s web site www.healthyamericans.org. The report was supported by a grant from The Pew Environment Group, which is the conservation arm of The Pew Charitable Trusts.
Trust for America’s Health is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to saving lives by protecting the health of every community and working to make disease prevention a national priority.
Health Problems Heat Up: Climate Change and the Public’s Health
Trust for America’s Health Releases Blueprint for Modernizing Public Health for the Presidential Transition and Next Congress
October 21, 2008
Washington, D.C. – Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) today released a Blueprint for a Healthier America: Modernizing the Federal Public Health System to Focus on Prevention and Preparedness with recommendations for the next Administration and Congress on ways to improve the health of Americans. More than 150 experts and organizations helped identify gaps and fixes for federal public health agencies and programs through a year-long consensus-building process.
“America’s public health system is broken. Serious gaps exist in the nation’s ability to safeguard health, putting our families, communities, states, and the country at risk,” said Jeff Levi, PhD, Executive Director of TFAH. “This Blueprint reflects ideas from the best and the brightest minds in public health for ways to prevent disease, prepare for disasters, and bring down health care costs.”
Even though the United States spends more than $2 trillion annually on health care, tens of millions of Americans suffer from preventable diseases and major vulnerabilities exist in the nation’s preparedness to respond to health emergencies.
Some highlighted recommendations in the Blueprint include:
- Setting new, realistic short and long-term health goals for the country;
- Investing in disease prevention as a cornerstone of health care reform;
- Ensuring a stable and reliable funding stream for core public health functions and preventive services, such as immunizations and screening, public health emergency preparedness, and promoting physical activity, good nutrition, and smoking prevention.
- Creating an independent, science-driven National Public Health Board;
- Implementing a National Health and Prevention Strategy focused on lowering disease rates, including a strategy to combat obesity;
- Increasing accountability by tying tax-payer investments to improving the health of Americans and improving federal, state, and local coordination;
- Addressing the public health workforce crisis with stepped-up recruitment efforts;
- Clearly defining public health emergency preparedness and response roles and responsibilities;
- Establishing an emergency health benefit for use by uninsured and underinsured Americans during major disasters and disease outbreaks; and
- Fixing the food safety system.
The Blueprint contains an analysis showing a shortfall of $20 billion annually — across state, local, and federal government — in funding for critical public health programs in the U.S., based on research conducted by The New York Academy of Medicine and a panel of leading experts. Approximately $1 billion of this shortfall is due to cuts to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) budget from fiscal year 2005 levels.
The Blueprint calls for establishing a stable, reliable funding stream for public health and provides options for funding mechanisms to make up the $20 billion shortfall by increasing federal spending by $12 billion and state and local spending by $8 billion annually over the next four to five years. TFAH recently issued a report that found that an investment of $10 per person per year in proven community-based programs to increase physical activity, improve nutrition, and prevent smoking and other tobacco use could save the country more than $16 billion annually within five years.
The Blueprint was supported by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Trust for America’s Health is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to saving lives by protecting the health of every community and working to make disease prevention a national priority.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change. For more than 35 years the Foundation has brought experience, commitment, and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those it serves. Helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need–the Foundation expects to make a difference in our lifetime. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org.
Contact
Liz Richardson
202-223-9870 x21
[email protected]
Laura Segal
202-223-9870 x27
[email protected]