Online tool points to disparities in local health impacts from high heat
Jul. 15—High temperatures may seem like an equal-opportunity oppressor, but data shows that preparedness for extreme heat can vary sharply from one neighborhood to the next, with potential deadly consequences.
Just how differently heat impacts are felt around California is the focus of a new online tool introduced by UCLA that breaks down 10 years' worth of emergency room data, by ZIP code, including Kern, with the goal of identifying areas in greatest need of help when heat waves hit.
Perhaps the data's biggest local takeaway is that neighborhoods around the county can experience high heat very differently. That's especially true in Bakersfield, where residents of one area may be twice as likely as residents living just one ZIP code away to suffer a heat-related medical emergency.
For example, according to the interactive tool at Uclaheatmaps.org, the 93301 ZIP code's per-capita rate of "excess" emergency-room visits on extreme-heat days averaged 3.5 per day between 2009 and 2018. That's more than twice the rate among residents of the adjacent 93309 ZIP code, where the average was 1.6 visits.
The researcher who led development of the online tool, David P. Eisenman, said in an interview Thursday that people living in different parts of Kern do experience extreme heat in different ways. Some are more likely to end up going to a hospital because of problems like asthma, kidney disease and diabetes, he said.
"The differences have usually to do with socioeconomic differences, disparities in housing, disparities in health status, disparities in access to air-conditioning, to shaded streets from trees — all the things that people need in order to stay cool," said Eisenman, professor of medicine and public health at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine and Fielding School of Public Health and co-director of the Center for Healthy Climate Solutions.
"These are the communities," he said, referring to those with the highest rates of emergency room visits during high heat, "that Kern County needs to focus its efforts on."
Eisenman envisioned steps like changes in housing and shade canopies that could be taken to help neighborhoods hit hardest by heat waves. He said the website's "heat maps" could be used to pinpoint areas that could benefit from government outreach during heat waves, such as knocking on doors to check on residents' welfare, delivering water and transporting people to cooling centers.
Pushing locally elected legislators to do more to address climate change is another possible response, he said, adding that warming weather "is going to harm the most vulnerable worst."
"It's not a future event," he said, referring to climate change. "It's a now event."
Michelle Corson, spokeswoman for the Kern County Public Health Services Department, called the heat maps tool "great information." She wasn't prepared Thursday to discuss the findings in detail but said county personnel expect to learn from the website.
"We appreciate any additional information that would help us better target our efforts to educate our residents on ways to stay safe during heat waves," Corson said by email. "As this is a newly released study, we look forward to doing a deeper dive into the information presented."
Similarly, the newly appointed chief heat officer for the city of Los Angeles, Marta Segura, said in a news release that the online tool will be of use to agencies working to protect people at risk when temperatures rise.
"This is a unique health and heat risk map," Segura stated, "that will help the City of Los Angeles target resources to the most vulnerable areas exposed to extreme heat and thus prioritize the mitigation and adaptation measures where they are most needed."
The heat maps tool was released for beta testing, meaning it is yet not in a finished state as Eisenman and other researchers work to fine-tune it. He urged people to take a look and provide comment on the website.
