The Problem
Mosquito and tick disease. Asthma. Allergies.
These things can’t be measured on a thermometer, but they are vital rates for people to know so they can live a healthy life. They also have historically been tracked at a federal and state level but not at a local level.
Until today.
The Idea
Public health surveillance is the collection, analysis and interpretation of health-related data. This idea and systems have long been implemented for public health priority areas such as infectious diseases, but with vector borne illnesses, pollution and so many other climate related irritants on the rise the question became: why not climate change and it’s health related impacts?
Federal and state indicators for climate change and it’s health impacts are great for informing larger scale projects and policies. But these are not always helpful in informing local public health actions. Local health departments and their communities needed local indicators for climate and health surveillance to effectively prepare for and adapt to climate change so Franklin County Public Health answered the call.
The Solution
With support from National Association of County Health Officials’ (NACCHO) Demonstration Sites in Climate and Health program, our brightest minds at Franklin County Public Health developed a set of local indicators for climate and health surveillance! They developed a page on our FCPH Data Hub for monitoring these indicators to provide climate change information at a local level.
The work began with a broad list of indicators that aligned with the climate change impacts expected in our jurisdiction, continued by identifying data sources, and dug through the past to generate historical baseline measures. From there, they then developed interactive dashboards to present current and historical measures of each indicator with descriptions to help the public understand how each measure is linked to climate change.
The initial set of climate-related indicators (unusually hot days and nights, extreme precipitation events, degree days) and health-related indicators (heat-related illnesses, vector-borne diseases, asthma and other allergic conditions) are just the beginning. The plan is to update these dashboards at least once a year as new data become available as well as add to the list of indicators.
By tracking these changes over time, we are putting more information in the hands of local communities to make the best decisions for themselves!