Montreal ’s Strategy for Hot Days: Evaluating the Effectiveness of One City’s Heat Action Plan

Nate Seltenrich covers science and the environment from Petaluma, CA. His work has appeared in High Country News, Sierra, Yale Environment 360, Earth Island Journal, and other regional and national publications. About This Article open Citation: Seltenrich N. 2016. Montreal’s strategy for hot days: evaluating the effectiveness of one city’s heat action plan. Environ Health Perspect 124:A207; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/124-A207 Published: 1 November 2016 PDF Version (600 KB) Related EHP Article A Difference-in-Differences Approach to Assess the Effect of a Heat Action Plan on Heat-Related Mortality, and Differences in Effectiveness According to Sex, Age, and Socioeconomic Status (Montreal, Quebec) Tarik Benmarhnia, Zinzi Bailey, David Kaiser, Nathalie Auger, Nicholas King, and Jay S. Kaufman Hot days can be deadly,1 so public health officials seek to mitigate their effects through heat action plans. These plans have been widely adopted, but little is known about how effective they really are at reducing the public health burden of high temperatures. A new study quantifies the effectiveness of one city’s plan for handling heat.2 “There are hundreds of heat action plans being implemented around the world,” says University of Washington professor Kristie L. Ebi, who did not participate in the study. “Very few are designed in a way that makes it easy to evaluate which components are associated with decreased morbidity and mortality, which makes it challengi...
Source: EHP Research - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: News Science Selections November 2016 Source Type: research