Community Resources for Extreme Heat, Wildfires & Climate Change

Communities across the U.S. and around the world are grappling with dangerous wildfires and extreme heat. These threats disrupt and uproot communities and pose serious risks to environmental and community health—from rising temperatures, unhealthy air pollutants, water contamination and more.?Outside workers, low-income, and people of color communities are often harmed first and worst. Today, we're highlighting some of our wildfire and extreme heat resources, tools, programs and?impacts—with a focus on ways to reach systemically excluded communities with key resources and information, and invest?in transformative solutions?to promote safety,?equity and resiliency. Read the whole piece, or scroll down to individual sections:

• Explore our tips and tools?for individuals and communities;?
• Meet PHI experts and programs?working to address the health impacts of wildfires, extreme heat and climate change;
• See research, impact stories and community examples highlighting successful partnerships, policies and strategies;
• Learn more about PHI's work to address climate change, health and equity.

Tips, Factsheets & Tools to Stay Safe During Wildfires & Extreme Heat

• Extreme Heat: Mapping Who & Where in CA Will Be Most Impacted: Extreme heat is one of the leading causes of weather-related deaths in the US.?For communities of color, underlying systemic inequities increase the chances of heat-related illnesses and death.?The California Healthy Places Index: Extreme Heat Edition allows journalists, community groups, government entities, schools, tribal organizations,?and other key audiences to scan their communities and understand which areas and populations are likely to be most affected by heat.?Explore the HPI: Extreme Heat Edition ?→
• Tips: Choosing A Safe, Effective Air Cleaner: Air cleaners can help clear out wildfire smoke particles and other asthma triggers, but finding the right purifier can be confusing and expensive. Find?fact sheets, videos and other resources to choose safe, effective and affordable air cleaners, released in partnership by?PHI’s Regional Asthma Management and Prevention and?Dr. Gina Solomon. The fact sheet includes tips for selecting an air cleaner based on room size, cost considerations, CARB and other certifications to look for, noise level?and more. See the resources?→
• CA Enviro Health Data Explorer: Extreme Heat: The California Environmental Health Data Explorer tool, created by PHI’s Tracking California, includes an interactive?dataset on heat-related illness, featuring?emergency department visits, hospitalizations and deaths across the state. The tool allows users to?explore county-level maps, charts, time trends and tables, while also providing?more information on heat-related illness;?relevant Tracking California publications and studies;?additional?safety resources from partners; and more. See the Data Explorer tool?→
• Fact Sheet: How to?Prepare for Wildfire Smoke Events: Find tips, tools and resources to prepare for and stay safe during wildfire smoke events, created by PHI's Regional Asthma Management and Prevention program. Schools, asthma educators, parents and others can use these fact sheets to learn?how to minimize exposure to smoke and harmful air pollutants. One?example: if you have a central ducted air conditioning and heating system, set the system to “on” rather than “auto.” See more tips?→
• Community Guidance: Staying Safe During High Temperatures: In the LA Times, Dr. Paul English, former director of our Tracking California, discusses the connections between our?changing climate, heat-related illness and death. He also shares ideas for?how to?prepare and respond at the community?level, including adding more accessible cooling centers, building more affordable housing?and implementing better workplace safety rules to help get vulnerable populations out of the rising heat. Learn more tips in the LA Times piece?→
• Strategies to Protect Farmworkers from Heat Illness in Polytunnels: Polytunnels—also known as hoop houses—are used to grow certain crops year-round because they are often significantly warmer than outdoor environments. In this webinar, PHI’s Achieving Resilience Communities shares learnings and recommendations to protect farmworkers and reduce the risk of heat related illness when working inside these structures, informed by first-hand interviews. See the webinar recording?→

How do social determinants like substandard housing, limited transportation options and cost of air filtration units contribute to increased smoke exposures for low-income communities? "When we think about the recommendations that experts make during wildfire smoke events, a lot of those simply aren't feasible for low-income residents," explains PHI's Anne Kelsey Lamb, director of our Regional Asthma Management and Prevention program. Find out more .

Meet More PHI Experts on Climate Change, Wildfire & Heat:

• Tracy Delaney, PhD, MS ; Public Health Alliance of Southern California &?Achieving Resilient Communities
• Michael Dimock, MA : Roots of Change & Achieving Resilient Communities
• Linda Rudolph, MD, MPH ; Center for Climate Change and Health

PHI Research, Partnerships & Policy to Advance Community Solutions

• Videos: Farmworkers on Heat, Wildfires & Health: Farmworkers are 20 times more likely to die from heat stress than the U.S. workforce overall. As climate change exacerbates heat and wildfire smoke, resilience efforts in farmworker communities will be crucial. To help increase awareness and push for action, PHI’s Achieving Resilient Communities and partners captured?digital stories from California farmworkers, recorded in Mixteco, Purépecha, Zapotec?and Spanish, to?share their personal lived experiences with heat and wildfire smoke. See the 2024 digital stories? and the 2022?digital stories?→
• Designing Inclusive, Accessible Emergency Planning for All: As part of a statewide campaign in 2020, PHI's Center on Disability engaged residents in three California counties to make emergency preparedness inclusive of people with disabilities, seniors and older adults, and people in poverty. Using a people-centered approach, the Center connected more than 300,000 people to emergency planning information and resources, and created written and online inclusive planning tools to help individuals prepare for emergencies including wildfires, extreme heat and more. See the impact story,?resources & report?→
• Protecting Communities from Extreme Heat & Harmful Algal Blooms: A PHI study found that homes relying on private drinking water supplied by Clear Lake have been contaminated with a toxin called microcystin from harmful algal blooms (HABs). In 2023, PHI's Climate Health Adaptation and Resilience Mobilizing (CHARM) launched in Lake County, establishing the first county-wide, coordinated action plan to address?the impact of extreme heat events and HABs in communities. Learn more about CHARM →
• Wildfire Alert System in Ventura County, CA: In 2022, PHI’s Achieving Resilient Communities (ARC) worked with community partners and local farmworkers to update the Ventura County emergency alert system, which now?includes audio alerts in Mixteco and Zapotec. The system is now able to notify?farmworkers when air quality reaches unhealthy levels due to wildfire smoke—and provides a model for other communities looking to increase access to critical emergency response information. Learn more about the alert system →
• Researching Wildfires & Water Contamination: After California's?2018?Paradise?Fire, residents were?concerned about the safety of drinking water in their homes. PHI's Tracking California, Dr. Gina Solomon and UCSF researchers tested water samples and?provided easy-to-understand results directly to participants and residents—helping to mitigate some of the trauma from the?wildfire?and support?rebuilding a sense of community and personal agency. See?best practices?→
• Helping Communities Monitor Air Quality in Real-Time: In 2015, PHI's Tracking California partnered?to install 40 low-cost, community managed air monitors across Imperial County. They discovered that the state’s monitors had likely been missing many pollution events for years: in the first five months, the community monitors detected 1,426 high air pollution episodes—more than twelve times as many as the state system detected. Read?the impact story?→
• Returning to Homes Impacted by Wildfires: In the?Honolulu Star Advertiser, PHI’s Science for Toxic Exposure Prevention shares insights on the potential health risks to returning to homes in the Maui Wildfire Zones, and how communities can protect themselves. One tip: Take measures to avoid skin contact with soot, which contains cancer-causing chemicals known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and can damage skin and lungs if breathed in. See more recommendations →
• Community-Driven Research for Better Air Quality in Homes: In the Central Valley, many residents are using swamp coolers that don’t sufficiently filter air, especially during wildfires. PHI's Filtration for Respiratory Exposures from Swamp Cooler Air (FRESSCA) project worked with local partners and community members to?install?a prototype model of a filtration system in homes to collect data and help residents breathe cleaner air. Read the full story?→

Building A?Multi-Sector, Community-Driven Movement for Climate, Health & Equity

Climate change is one of the greatest public health challenges of the 21st century. PHI advocates for healthy and climate-resilient communities that have the right tools to mitigate and adapt to climate change, while promoting strategies to reduce the overall factors which drive climate change in the first place—focusing on the vulnerable communities impacted worst and first. Explore our most popular tools and resources to guide your work:

• Climate Change, Health, and Equity: Opportunities for Action : PHI’s Center for Climate Change and Health?presents a conceptual framework to demonstrate how climate change, health?and equity are linked, and identifies opportunities and recommendations for action.
• Policy Agenda: Green Infrastructure, Public Health and Equity :?Green infrastructure can address climate change, promote community resilience and invest in neighborhoods that have been harmed by disinvestment, redlining and other racist policies.?PHI's Public Health Alliance of Southern California looks at the existing barriers and local, state and federal policy opportunities to expand the use of green infrastructure.
• A Physician’s Guide to Climate Change, Health and Equity :?Doctors are often trusted voices on health issues, making them invaluable messengers on climate change. This guide from PHI's Center of Climate Change and Health explores climate change and topics like food security, infectious diseases and?mental health; and the?impacts on vulnerable populations including pregnant people, workers and children.?
• Report: Are California’s Local Health Departments Resourced to Address Climate-Driven Disasters? :?Find insights from the Public Health Alliance of Southern California and partners on how California’s local health departments can help to foster a more equitable, healthy, and climate-resilient California.

Learn about PHI's work to address?climate change, with more tools & resources?→

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