A report looking at the health impacts of climate change in Northampton, Massachusetts. This report is unique in that it looks at climate change in a very local context, whereas most reports about climate change and health are on a state- or region-wide basis.
Executive Summary
Over the remainder of this century, Northampton will experience climate changes that include: a substantial increase in days of extreme heat; more precipitation, severe weather events, power outages, and potential for flooding; and shorter winters with milder average temperatures and longer summers. These changes are already underway in Northampton and throughout Massachusetts.
Climate changes lead to health and societal impacts. From the best available research, we expect the following in Northampton:
- Increased hospitalizations and emergency department visits from heat stress, asthma, and cardiovascular disease.
- Increased incidence of seasonal allergies, Lyme disease, Eastern Equine Encephalitis, and West Nile Virus.
- Due to the potential for flooding, a small increased risk for water-borne illness and a small risk of displacement, loss of home, and difficulty evacuating.
- Increased stress and anxiety due to extreme weather events, which can disrupt power, sanitary, and health care services, and cause damage to homes and property.
- An decrease in utility costs, with home heating costs decreasing and cooling costs increasing over time.
In Northampton, we are healthier than the average Bay State resident in some ways and in other ways we are not. We have, for example, fewer heart attacks, less cardiovascular disease and less obesity, but we have more childhood asthma and elderly suicide. The City of Northampton, its residents, and its private and nonprofit partners need to keep in mind the numerous studies that find that there are populations that are more vulnerable to health and social risks resulting from climate change than others: those who have lower incomes, the elderly, children, those who are linguistically isolated, people of color, those who are homeless and marginally housed, and those with mental health issues and substance abuse disorders. Consideration of these populations should be elevated during adaptation planning discussions, and extra effort made to include their voices.
Fortunately, Northampton is actively engaged in mitigation strategies for some of these climate change impacts. There are a range of specific near term and longer term strategies that the City, the region, and the state can employ to ensure that Northampton residents can avoid or decrease catastrophic health impacts as well as those that will simply increase slowly, as the climate continues to change. The good news is that responding to climate change provides opportunities for “co-benefits” – ways that we can mitigate and decrease the impacts of energy use, transportation patterns, and agriculture systems but also improve human health and wellbeing. One example of a co-benefit is land use planning that encourages people to walk and bike instead of drive; this decreases auto emissions and improves health. Northampton has been actively engaged in implementing this strategy already.
Public health actions, especially in emergency preparedness and prevention of chronic and infectious diseases, can protect people proactively from some of the impacts of climate change. Early action provides the largest health benefits; as threats increase, our ability to adapt to future changes may be limited. This Climate and Health: Northampton, Massachusetts report recommends the following public health strategies:
- Reduce vulnerabilities to climate change health impacts by focusing on prevention, healthy built environments, identification and closure of gaps in health care access, and increase in emergency room capacity.
- Educate, empower, and engage Northampton residents, organizations, and businesses to reduce vulnerability through targeted outreach and education about the health impacts of climate change and what can be done to address them.
- Improve public health preparedness and emergency response through evacuation planning, conducting exercises for the public, improving utility company response to power outages, and improving surveillance of disease.
- Work in multi-sectoral partnerships (local, regional, state, and federal) to identify and prioritize mitigation and adaptation planning strategies with public health co-benefits.
- Conduct applied research to inform promotion and protection of human health, such as quantification of the projected proportion of childhood asthma incidence due to climate change in Northampton and surrounding towns.
- Implement policy, systems, and environmental changes at local, regional, and national levels, integrating climate, health, and equity considerations into all policies and processes.
- Strengthen public health, health care system, and general infrastructure capacity to prepare and respond to climate change events (e.g., power outages and hospitals closures) and provide continuity of medical care following extreme events (e.g., access to medication and medical records).
For additional detail and specific examples of each recommendation, please see the “Strategies to Address Climate and Health In the Region, State, and Northampton” section in the full report.
By working together, planning thoughtfully, and taking action, our region can decrease our risk of negative health outcomes from climate change, and can lead the way for others. Nationally, there are few local health departments that have taken action on the effects of climate change, and yet this global metamorphosis will play out very locally. The City of Northampton, through the Office of Planning and Sustainability and the Northampton Department of Health, has can continue to lead the way.
