Minnesota's climate and health program: Progress and lessons learned

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has a three-prong approach to preparing Minnesota for the public health impacts of climate change: 1) promote policy changes at the state level to protect health and adapt to climate change; 2) educate public health professionals and the public on climate change and public health; and 3) advance planning for public health impacts of climate change at the state, regional and local levels. Results from two projects highlighting these approaches will be presented: 1) Healthy Planning: A Review of the Seven County Metropolitan Area Developed Community Comprehensive plans, and 2) the Minnesota Extreme Heat Toolkit (EH Toolkit). Currently, public health and climate change are not explicit requirements of the comprehensive planning process in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area. MDH wanted to better understand comprehensive planning efforts and make recommendations to the Metropolitan Council (the metropolitan planning organization) to ensure that future comprehensive plans incorporate climate change and public health. MDH reviewed 53 developed communities' comprehensive plans for climate change and public health indictors. While only a few communities met most of the indicators, it was found that comprehensive plans could be used to improve policies and strategies to promote public health and climate change adaptation. In April 2012, MDH developed the Minnesota EH Toolkit to prepare local jurisdictions for extreme heat events. At the time of the toolkit release, only two jurisdictions in Minnesota had an excessive heat annex to their All Hazards Plan. The EH Toolkit contains background information on extreme heat events, characteristics that increase the risk of heat-related illnesses, key steps for preparing for and responding to extreme heat events, elements for inclusion into an effective heat response plan, strategies for preventing heat-related morbidity and mortality, and an assessment methodology for mapping vulnerable populations and environmental characteristics.