Human Health and Safety Chapter Summary
People are the heart of New York State. As climate change leads to hazards that affect the state’s communities, it is essential to protect the health and safety of every resident. Reducing the risk of harm where people live, work, and play is important for people’s physical and mental well-being and for preventing new health problems. Many systems and services are critical to health and safety, including medical care, buildings, energy, food and water, transportation, and natural environments. A good quality of life for everyone across New York State starts with good health and safe places to thrive.
This summary provides an overview of climate change impacts on the health and safety of New York State’s residents. It includes a synopsis of key climate change hazards, equity and justice considerations, impacts on Indigenous Peoples and Tribal Nations, key findings from the assessment’s Human Health and Safety chapter, and opportunities for the future.
Climate Change Hazards and Impacts on Human Health and Safety in New York State
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Climate change poses many threats to people’s health and safety across the state. A wide range of climate hazards can directly and indirectly influence people’s health and safety, including:
- More extreme heat events.
- Changes in the amount and duration of precipitation, including heavy rainfall and drought.
- More frequent and intense storms.
- Sea level rise.
These climate hazards can happen on their own or in combination with each other to create harmful impacts that affect human health and safety, such as:
- Physical health and safety impacts, including heat stress, dehydration, and cardiovascular illness from rising temperatures; drowning and exposure to contaminants and mold due to flooding and sea level rise; breathing problems, drinking water shortages, and increased water and air pollution from droughts and wildfires; and more mosquito- and tick-borne disease from rising temperatures and precipitation.
- Mental health impacts, including anxiety about climate change, increased or worsened mental health problems due to high temperatures, traumatic or stressful experiences during and after extreme storms and flooding, and trauma associated with the need to leave homes or communities damaged by sea level rise.
- Health care system impacts, including increased hospitalizations and health care costs from heat-related illness; power outages, facility damage, or hospital evacuation during extreme events; increased staffing needs for emergency response; and disrupted transportation and access to medical facilities due to flooding and sea level rise.
Climate Equity and Justice
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Everyone deserves to live, learn, work, and play in a safe and healthy environment, even as the climate changes. That is climate equity. However, some groups are more exposed to climate change hazards, are more at risk of harm, or have fewer resources to recover and adapt. This is often the case among historically underserved and underrepresented groups of people. Working to help these groups adapt to climate impacts is a form of climate justice.
Even though climate change affects everyone, some people experience greater risks to their health and safety. For example, historical and ongoing discrimination and community disinvestment have made some people and groups more vulnerable to climate change-related health threats. For instance, discriminatory housing practices have left underserved neighborhoods—often where Black and immigrant communities are located—with higher exposure to extreme heat from the “urban heat island” effect. Learn more about these practices and their effects on our Equity and Justice web page.
In addition, low-income individuals have fewer resources to cope with climate-related health and safety risks. For example, access to air conditioning can be unaffordable for some people, putting them more at risk of heat exposure.
Climate change impacts also add to challenges faced by people with existing health conditions. Certain chronic conditions are made worse by exposure to extreme heat, poor air quality, and water-related illnesses. People who depend on regular treatment, medical devices, or refrigerated medications may experience worse outcomes in a power outage or if access to care is interrupted due to extreme weather events. People with disabilities and people who depend on support programs are also at risk from interrupted access to care. In addition, people in rural areas often already have limited health care resources, making them especially vulnerable to extreme weather events that disrupt health care.
Indigenous Peoples and Tribal Nations
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There are eight federally recognized Tribal Nations and one state-recognized Nation in New York State, as well as several other Indigenous communities that maintain ties to the state and live in surrounding states. The colonization and dispossession of Tribal lands, as well as forced migration to lower-quality lands, have contributed to the climate risks Indigenous Peoples face.
Indigenous Peoples’ health and cultural traditions are closely connected to the natural environment. Climate impacts that take a toll on the natural resources needed for these purposes pose threats to Indigenous Peoples’ well-being. For example, many Tribal Nations view food as medicine, and certain foods are needed for optimal health. Climate change is affecting if and when some of these foods can be grown and harvested. In addition, many Indigenous communities have less access to health care and higher rates of chronic health issues, increasing their risk of health impacts from climate change.
Some Tribal Nations have documented their health and safety concerns related to climate impacts in climate adaptation plans. These plans emphasize that physical health and cultural health cannot be separated. Below are three examples of Tribal Nations’ physical and cultural health concerns.
- The Shinnecock Nation is concerned about health threats such as heat, challenges for emergency responders during flooding, and pest outbreaks and Lyme disease. Contamination of shellfish from harmful algal blooms in warming coastal waters may put Shinnecock communities more at risk of disease through their traditional fishing practices. Climate change could also cause a decrease in the availability of sassafras, huckleberry, shellfish, and pitch pine used in traditional food and medicine.
- The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe (Akwesasne) has concerns about stress and mental health impacts from climate change, as well as limited access to health services to address increasing health impacts. Many community members living on Akwesasne Territory suffer from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases due to the land’s extensive industrial contamination, and climate change will worsen air quality and exacerbate these existing conditions.
- The Seneca Nation identified concerns about declining wildlife and aquatic species. Increasing water temperatures in the Allegheny River, Cattaraugus Creek, and Lake Erie could reduce or eliminate important species and threaten the Seneca Nation’s traditional food supply.
Climate Change and New York State’s Human Health and Safety Sector: Technical Workgroup Key Findings from the Assessment
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Technical workgroups for each of the assessment’s eight sectors developed key findings focused on climate change impacts, responses, and solutions. More detail on the key findings for the human health and safety sector, and the evidence base for each finding, can be found in the full Human Health and Safety chapter.
Climate change poses escalating health and safety risks for New Yorkers from heat, heavy rainfall, flooding, and air quality changes, combined with non-climate stressors.
Many of the factors that affect New York State residents’ health and safety are not necessarily related to climate change. These factors can include high health care costs, lack of access to services, or lack of information on how to reduce health risks. Climate hazards like extreme heat, heavy rainfall, and flooding create further health and safety risks on top of these existing challenges.
For example, high temperatures lead to an increase in emergency room visits and hospital admissions due to heat stress, dehydration, and complications of existing health problems. These impacts will increase as summer temperatures rise and heat waves happen more often. Rising temperatures can also worsen air pollution: heat can increase ground-level ozone, an air pollutant that can irritate the respiratory system. Higher temperatures can increase fire risk across North America, which can spread hazardous smoke to New York from areas outside the state. A combination of high temperatures and heavy precipitation can increase rates of waterborne diseases. For instance, higher temperatures can increase the growth of pathogens in water, and heavy precipitation can lead to flooding that can spread those pathogens.
People exposed to floodwaters from intense rainfall or sea level rise can be at risk of injury, illness, or drowning. Flooding can also limit access to health services, which is especially dangerous for individuals who rely on regular medical care for existing health conditions. Power outages during or after extreme weather events can create risks for people who rely on electricity-dependent medical devices or who need refrigerated medications like insulin.
What Can We Do?
Even though public health and climate change are connected in so many ways, agencies and organizations do not always emphasize public health when planning for climate change. However, New York State is beginning to involve more public health professionals in climate planning efforts. Public health campaigns and training programs for health service providers can help communities better understand, monitor, and reduce their climate-related health risks. Community planners can also reduce people’s exposure to extreme events like heat and flooding by modifying infrastructure to reduce heat and manage floodwaters, as well as by providing resources like cooling centers and emergency shelters.
Climate change–related impacts on mental health and well-being are pronounced.
Rising temperatures, extreme storms, and flooding all have negative effects on mental health. Mental health impacts from extreme weather events like flooding can include post-traumatic stress disorder, which is a particular risk for children after climate-related events. The threat of climate change has also been shown to cause stress and anxiety among people of all ages.
Higher temperatures have been linked to worsening existing mental health problems and violence. Extreme heat can also reduce the effectiveness of medications used to treat mental health disorders. At the same time, these medications can make users more sensitive to heat by interfering with the body’s temperature regulation.
Some New York State residents are particularly vulnerable to climate-related mental health challenges, including children, older adults, people with pre-existing mental health concerns, and those with limited access to mental health resources, such as many Indigenous and rural communities. For people in professions that face significant risks from climate change, such as agriculture or commercial fishing, the loss of livelihood that may result can be another mental health stress.
What Can We Do?
As climate impacts worsen over time, expanding mental health services can help at-risk residents. Simply raising awareness about climate-related mental health concerns is also important. New York State’s health service providers would benefit from additional information about these risks. The more information they have, the better they can educate their patients on ways to reduce mental health stresses from climate impacts.
Discriminatory systems and policies amplify climate change–related health risks for New Yorkers.
Racism embedded in everyday systems and policies is called structural racism. Structural racism is a health emergency that magnifies climate change impacts on people of color and Indigenous Peoples. Discrimination in housing, employment, health care, and other systems can result in these populations facing more climate hazards than other communities and having fewer resources to cope. As a result, they also experience worse health problems.
The historical practice of redlining is an example of systemic racism in housing policies. This practice has resulted in urban areas with fewer trees, more concrete, and hotter temperatures (due to the “urban heat island” effect) where low-income residents of color often live. In these areas where air conditioning is needed most, many residents do not have access to air conditioners. Research in New York City highlighted that Black adults were more likely to not have in-home air conditioning than other racial and ethnic groups. Some individuals in these communities that do have air conditioning may not use it because of the cost. These communities are especially at risk of health impacts from higher temperatures, such as heat-related illnesses and mental health problems.
In addition, industrial areas are often located near or within communities of color. Power plants, factories, wastewater treatment facilities, and waste stations are some of the facilities often located in these industrial areas. Extreme rainfall can cause flooding that carries pollution from these facilities into nearby communities. Residents in these areas have a greater potential for exposure to chemicals from industrial activities during flooding events.
What Can We Do?
Addressing climate change–related health impacts means also addressing policies and practices that discriminate against certain races and contribute to long-term health challenges. In addition to identifying the root causes of inequity, it is important for decision-makers to include local community input when planning and undertaking measures to reduce climate impacts on health and safety for all people.
A collaborative, health-centric, “whole of community” approach is essential for addressing the urgency and broad impacts of climate change.
Local health departments are key players in helping communities grapple with the health effects of climate change. For example, health department professionals can educate residents and elected decision-makers about the health risks from increased heat, extreme rainfall, and flooding. They can also offer recommendations on steps to reduce health problems from climate impacts.
However, local health departments’ perceptions of climate impacts vary across the state, as do their capacities to address these impacts. Not all health departments have the same training and funding needed to help their community face climate-related health risks. Involving community members in local initiatives can help raise awareness and contribute valuable information to health departments. For example, in 2021 and 2022, community members in the Bronx, Yonkers, Manhattan, and Brooklyn had the opportunity to help collect urban temperature data. Engaging families, businesses, schools, local government, and community organizations through projects like data collection is called a “whole of community” approach.
What Can We Do?
A community-based approach to public health and climate change can build resilience statewide. New York State’s engagement of local health departments in local and state planning for climate change is evolving. For example, the statewide Extreme Heat Action Plan process involved local health departments, community members, and organizations to help raise risk awareness in communities across the state, better understand the needs of those communities, and identify heat adaptation strategies specific to each community. Processes like this could offer new ways of including more community members in local climate action planning processes.
Public health efforts to address climate change must be sustained to be effective.
When a major public health crisis occurs, there is a tendency for attention and resources to shift to that crisis. This can take time and resources away from the longer-term planning needed to address climate-related public health impacts. The response to COVID-19 is a recent example of a public health crisis that stressed resources. Across the state, local governments redirected climate change–focused health resources to COVID-19 response. Even local departments with funding to address climate change did not have the staffing capacity to manage those resources while responding to COVID-19.
Some climate response methods, such as opening public cooling centers during extreme heat, conflicted with guidelines to reduce the spread of COVID-19. For example, New York City quickly rolled out a COVID-19 Heat Wave Plan, but shelters closed due to COVID-19–related limitations on gathering sizes.
What Can We Do?
With climate change, disease exposure and pandemics are projected to increase over time. The state’s communities will need to manage climate-related health issues while also managing other public health crises. Local health departments will need leadership, funding, and staffing dedicated to climate change to prepare health systems, local governments, and community residents for related climate and health challenges.
Opportunities for the Human Health and Safety Sector
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While climate change poses significant risks to health and safety, there may be some positive outcomes and opportunities to improve New Yorkers’ health and safety while adapting to climate impacts. Examples of proactive measures that address health, safety, and climate resilience include:
- Using responses to extreme heat events, storms, and flooding as an opportunity to increase awareness about climate-related health risks and available resources to reduce exposure, such as energy assistance or home weatherization programs.
- Including climate and health programs in chronic disease management and prevention programs to support people with climate-sensitive vulnerabilities.
- Establishing, planning, and budgeting for pandemic preparedness and response activities that coexist with climate change preparedness and response.
- Planning and installing climate impact solutions that also provide mental and physical health benefits. For example, green spaces intended to reduce urban heat island temperatures and manage stormwater can also improve mental health by providing access to nature.
Emerging Research Topics
There are still unknowns about climate change impacts on human health and safety in the state. More research is needed to fill information gaps, such as:
- How regional differences in climate impacts affect health and safety, and how region-specific strategies could improve health and safety.
- How the need to relocate due to sea level rise affects health, including mental health, and how to integrate that information into community plans for relocation.
- How changing pollen levels can cause current and future health problems.
- The location of basement apartments in New York City, to help ensure that flood warnings and safety measures during extreme rainfall and storm surge events are provided to vulnerable residents.
- Regional costs associated with climate impacts that cause people to move from their homes, such as extreme heat, sea level rise, and wildfire smoke.
- What causes mental health problems during extreme heat events.
- How climate impacts can cause other health and safety problems or make existing problems worse.
Conclusions
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As climate change alters New York State’s environment, the health and safety of residents statewide is at risk. Climate change hazards like rising temperatures, heavy rainfall, and flooding pose threats to everyone’s physical safety, physical health, mental health, and overall well-being. For the most vulnerable individuals and communities who face existing health and safety challenges, climate impacts can amplify these challenges.
Protecting the health and safety of New Yorkers will require broad community involvement. While local health departments will play a critical lead role, each community needs families, businesses, schools, local government, and community organizations to understand their climate-related health risks and take action to improve health outcomes. Raising awareness about links between climate and health, offering resources to help residents cope with climate impacts, and developing health care strategies that consider climate risks are some approaches to reducing New Yorkers’ overall health risks. Any approach that addresses public health and climate impacts must also address the structural racism that amplifies climate change–related health risks for communities of color and Indigenous Peoples.
Training, funding, and staffing for local health departments is essential to managing climate-related public health risks along with other public health crises. While the health and safety threats from the changing climate loom large, the solutions may provide opportunities to improve many New Yorkers’ health. Diverse solutions to protect health and safety are already being implemented across the state through efforts like the Climate Smart Communities programs. New York State residents’ creativity and resilience is key to improving every community’s well-being now and in the future.
Learn More
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Read the full Human Health and Safety chapter to learn more about impacts and adaptation strategies.