Public health mapping is key to saving lives in natural disasters

The growing number of extreme weather incidents is spurring calls from emergency service workers and national and local authorities for better public health mapping to identify and assist people at risk of environmental disasters.

Why is this important: People of color, especially black Americans, have been disproportionately affected by environmental risks and are more likely to die from environmental causes now and in the future.

Advocates argue that deaths can be reduced by identifying the location of people who have health problems or are homeless, elderly or isolated. Mapping can also help determine if people are nearby unstable infrastructure, such as old buildings or power plants, which increase their risk of injury or illness due to air pollution or in the event of a natural disaster.
In the United States, people of color in particular are more vulnerable to heat waves, extreme weather conditions and labor market disruptions following a weather event, according to several studies.

Inventory: Local, state and federal funding for environmental concerns raised by communities of different races and ethnicities is often not equally dispersed once disasters strike, according to the American Public Health Association.

Counties with a majority of white residents have seen an increase in average wealth after natural disasters due to reinvestment or better insurance coverage options, while counties with more people of color have seen their wealth decline, according to a study by Rice University and the University of Pittsburgh.
White families living in areas with an estimated $ 10 billion in damage saw their wealth increase by nearly $ 126,000 from 1999 to 2003 compared to black families, who saw their wealth decline. of about $ 27,000, according to the study.

What is happening: With a state- or county-wide mapping system – what some also call environmental justice mapping – nonprofits, emergency services like firefighters and EMTs, employees Public health and social workers can knock on doors to check on at-risk residents and target warning messages in advance of evacuations or expected weather conditions.

More lives could have been saved with public health mapping when the Pacific Northwest experienced record-breaking heat waves last summer, Randy Lauer, vice president of operations for the North, told Axios. west at Global Medical Response, which helps coordinate the regional emergency response.

What to watch: Effective policies and programs are essential to improve this, according to the APHA, as communities of color face increasing challenges posed by climate change.

In recent weeks, some members of Congress have been pushing for mapping and data collection to be included in proposed legislation. The problems cannot be adequately addressed if the United States cannot identify demographic factors, environmental burdens, socio-economic conditions, and public health issues in communities of color, the bill says.
Several proposals In the Senate, committees are asking for $ 100 million for state, local and tribal airline agencies to partner with local nonprofits or air quality data providers to identify hot spots for pollutants, publish data and create online mapping tools for communities of color to better protect themselves.
Some states, like Washington, have dedicated resources to population mapping, but are still striving to develop adequate community outreach and better user-friendly dashboards.

The bottom line: Discriminatory practices and policies coupled with higher pollution loads and reduced access to healthcare have placed people of color at the heart of environmental racism.