A comparative assessment of cooling center preparedness across twenty-five U.S. cities.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Jung J ; Kim K ; Schollaert C ; Spector JT
• Description:
  Cooling centers have played a significant role in reducing the risks of adverse health impacts of extreme heat exposure. However, there have been no comparative studies investigating cooling center preparedness in terms of population coverage, location efficiency, and population coverage disparities among different subpopulation groups. Using a catchment area method with a 0.8 km walking distance, we compared three aspects of cooling center preparedness across twenty-five cities in the U.S. We first calculated the percentage of the population covered by a single cooling center for each city. Then, the extracted values were separately compared to the city's heat indexes, latitudes, and spatial patterns of cooling centers. Finally, we investigated population coverage disparities among multiple demographics (age, race/ethnicity) and socioeconomic (insurance, poverty) subpopulation groups by comparing the percentage of population coverage between selected subpopulation groups and reference subpopulation groups. Our results showed that cooler cities, higher latitude cities, and cities with dispersed cooling centers tend to be more prepared than warmer cities, lower latitude cities, and cities with clustered cooling centers across the U.S. Moreover, older people (≥ 65) had 9% lower population coverage than younger people (≤ 64). Our results suggest that the placement of future cooling centers should consider both the location of other nearby cooling centers and the spatial distribution of subpopulations to maximize population coverage and reduce access disparities among several subpopulations. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Community Health Services Demography Disaster Planning Emergencies Healthcare Disparities Hot Temperature Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Cooling Center; Preparedness; Heat Waves; Extreme Heat; Population Coverage; Subpopulation Groups; Disparity Heat Exposure; Hot Environments; Cooling Systems; Community Health; Demographic Characteristics; Socioeconomics; Emergency Preparedness; Health Disparities;
• ISSN:
  1660-4601
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Florida ; OSHA Region 10 ; OSHA Region 4 ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  18
• Issue:
  9
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20064974
• Citation:
  Int J Environ Res Public Health 2021 Apr; 18(9):4801
• Contact Point Address:
  Jihoon Jung, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
• Email:
  climategeo@gmail.com
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2021
• Performing Organization:
  University of Washington
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• End Date:
  20250630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d7f776f7baecc213cb6277a577e8118adc90ffc8e222eddd0aabc300ed0c6415696c80ffdbc26819209186b767597578c0c34ad73de0c2fe4c84fa7e85e6bda0
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/248624/cdc_248624_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.79 MB ]