Research to support public health action on heat and health - 20th Annual John K. Friesen Conference - Growing Old in a Changing Climate: Exploring the Interface Between Population Aging and Global Warming (2011)

This video clip comprises the four presentations of Panel Session 2, “Mitigation and Prevention Strategies: Lessons Learned on the Front Lines” held at the 20th Annual John K. Friesen Conference, "Growing Old in a Changing Climate: Exploring the Interface Between Population Aging and Global Warming," MAY 25-26, 2011, Vancouver, BC. Dr. Tom Kosatsky " Research to support public health action on heat and health" - Research from various disciplines can promote, support and contextualize public health action to prevent illness and death related to hot weather. Examples are sociological assessments of who died during the 1995 Chicago heat wave, experimental evidence of age-related differentials in the physiology of the heat response, occupational medicine research into the time course of heat acclimatization, models of the cooling capacity of room fanning versus water misting of occupants, and spatial overlays of attributes of heat vulnerability over a city or region. During this presentation I will review projects to which I have contributed since 2003: the PHEWE study of mortality attributable to heat in 15 European cities; surveys of city and country preparedness for heat in Europe; the influence of local greenery on where hot day deaths occur in Montreal; knowledge, attitudes and practices of Montreal residents with chronic heart and lung disease around hot weather preparedness and response; changes in heat susceptibility from 1985-2010 in Vancouver; and, observed shifts in patterns of mortality during the 2009 Vancouver heat event. We also gratefully acknowledge a grant from the SFU Library's Scholarly Digitization Fund for videography and post-production editing. See webpage for more information on the 20th Annual John K. Friesen Conference: http://www.sfu.ca/grc/friesen/friesen2011/