Climate & Health

The NH Climate and Health Program helps citizens, health professionals, and policy makers to: 

• Understand the relationships between weather, seasons, climate and health impacts,
• Understand how our citizens can best adapt to changing climate conditions, and how communities can act to reduce the risks from heat stress, severe weather, and tick bites. 
• Monitor trends in weather hazards and public health;  
• Pursue original research on the impact of weather and climate on health issues in NH and the Northeast US.
• Build the evidence base for public health action via collaboration with partners and funders at the CDC National Center for Environmental Health. 

Public Health Actions

The Northeast climate is changing in four important ways. The climate is getting warmer, and wetter, with more severe weather, and sea level rise that may affect the physical or mental health of the population. Our people are strong and resilient, yet some communities want and need assistance to adapt to the changing environment. NH Climate and Health Program actions include the following:

• Collaborate with Peers: Our stakeholder advisory group meets twice a year to learn, plan and act on the climate and health challenges that face our state.
• Train the Workforce: We provide courses that increase knowledge, skills and ability to adapt to the changing weather, climate and seasons. Specific course topics include our changing seasons & health impacts, emergency preparedness, and tick-safe practices. 
• Take Action at the Local Level: We fund projects on how to build community resilience to a changing climate, including how to prepare for severe weather at home; how to prepare and prevent heat stress, and how to avoid tick habitat and prevent tick and mosquito bites.
• Communicate Key Messages: We provide simple graphics and messages in every season to educate citizens about how the climate is changing and how they can better adapt or prevent health impacts. 
• Building Evidence for Action: We collaborate with universities and health departments to design studies on the health impact of rising temperatures, extreme weather, and community resilience. 
• Access Data via a Web Portal: We collaborate with the Environmental Health Tracking Program (EPHT) to help people get the information they need on social vulnerability, heat injury, and other weather-related health impacts.