Healthy Regions & Policies Lab

June 2nd is Global Heat Action Day! Take a moment to learn about heat stress and what you can do to minimize its effect. If you’re a resident of the City of Chicago, it’s also a great day to share your feedback in the city’s heat resilience program priorities survey.

Exposure to heat remains a global challenge as the leading cause of weather-related deaths. It can exacerbate a range of underlying illnesses, and becomes exceptionally dangerous when intersected with social and economic vulnerabilities.

Remembering the ’95 Heat Wave

This year is the 30th anniversary of the 1995 Heat Wave that took over 500 lives in Chicago, and hundreds more across the Midwest. It wasn’t just the heat itself; neighborhoods with less access to air conditioning, for example, fared worse, reflecting how heat exposure is an interconnected social determinant of health, driven by inequities at structural levels. Check out this Oral History of the ’95 Heat Wave by Chicago Magazine to learn about the context of what people experienced.

A community-level map of the heat wave mortality rate in Chicago is on the ChiVes web application, a data & mapping collaborative dedicated to visualizing Chicago’s environment. Explore and filter other variables of regional inequity measures to explore the event, and see current cooling centers available this summer as an “overlay” feature.

Illinois & Midwest Heat Resources

Our lab has been fortunate to partner with multiple Chicago community partners who are dedicated to building heat resilience in the city and beyond. Organizations like the People’s Response Network (PRN) and Chicago Technology Alliance continue to push us to move beyond “research for research’s sake” and always center people and places in everything we do. Here are some additional action items we’ve learned about from our colleagues:

• Get trained in First Aid to support your community.
• Download OSHA-NIOSH Heat Safety Tool App, a critical resources for planning outdoor work activities based on how hot it feels throughout the day.
• Host a showing of Cooked: Survival by Zip Code, a documentary about the 1995 Heat Wave. Contact PRN to coordinate access and link with the filmmaker.
• Kick off a Beat the Heat Campaign (inspired by Peoria’s Illinois Extension team) with friends, building and distributing heat kits in your community.
• Explore art and nature across neighborhoods with the HEATChicago app to build community, connect with nature, and promote healing.

Change Chicago’s Future: Provide Feedback in the Community Priorities Survey

In Chicago, there are thirty proposals being considered to increase heat resilience policy & programming. If you’re a resident of the city, help the Chicago Department of Public Health shape heat policy by completing this survey: https://northwestern.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cUzFszxO7TIjyoC.