Beating the Heat: How Pima County Is Protecting Residents from Excessive Heat
Success StoriesAs extreme heat events become more frequent and dangerous, Pima County, AZ is taking action to keep residents safe. In this video, Michael Pensak, Program Manager at the Pima County Public Health Department, explains how PHIG funding has helped the county respond to rising temperatures and protect vulnerable populations.
Through PHIG, the county established an Office of Heat Relief and Response, bringing together local government, universities, and community organizations to coordinate lifesaving efforts. From opening cooling centers in libraries and county buildings to deploying innovative “cool-tainers,” Pima County is ensuring that every resident has a safe place to escape the heat.
Public health communication is also central to their strategy. The county’s “Beat the Heat” campaign shares maps, safety information, and ready-to-use social media resources to help communities within and beyond Pima County prepare for extreme temperatures. Find heat safety and health communications at Pima.gov/BeattheHeat.
Video Transcript
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
What was the situation in Pima County?
The Public Health Infrastructure Grant (PHIG) in Pima County allowed us to address the rise in temperatures and the associated rise in illness due to heat — excessive natural heat— as well as deaths that were due to excessive natural heat. These are not things that are coming out because of external or non-natural conditions, like working in a hot office building or something like that. This is simply the temperatures that are rising well over 100 degrees.
How has Pima County used PHIG to keep people safe from excessive heat?
Part of the response in Pima County has been the creation of an Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, which has become the Office of Heat Relief and Response. What our first program manager did was to help organize the more independently operating responders, including the City of Tucson, the University of Arizona, and other nonprofits in Pima County, in terms of coordinating response to the excessive heat that we have been seeing for almost six or seven years now.
These have included the establishment of cooling centers. Specifically, we’ve been able to engage our public libraries, of which there are over 20 in the county. We’ve been able to involve county buildings, which have been opened for heat respite, as well as the engagement of cool-tainers. This is a repurposed shipping container that has cooling mechanisms. Of course, we supply all of these different centers with water, sunscreen, and information on how people can better protect themselves during this time of year.
And speaking of the time of year, I really want to emphasize that it is July through September when this is occurring. For those months, that is when we’re seeing these incredible numbers of illnesses and deaths. So it is not year-round, but it is really targeted to our heat season.
How are you sharing heat safety resources?
The Office of Heat Relief and Response has been operating a “Beat the Heat” campaign in conjunction with our Office of Health Communications. In that effort, we have established a website where residents can go and find maps to these cooling centers. They can also find educational materials about how to protect oneself during this time of year.
We’ve also developed a lot of social media material, which we’ve made available to anyone who would like to use it. Anybody from any county, any state health department, or any territory that feels social media would assist them in the development of their own response to heat can go to the Pima County Beat the Heat webpage. It also includes data on heat, but I think what people will be most interested in is the health communications messaging we have available to them.
Why is this work so important?
The county’s response to the changes in our climate and how that affects our county’s population is exceedingly important because it is not an illness that has a vector or a pathogen or some means that infects people and gets them sick. These are simply the conditions in which all the residents live. Some people have the means to keep themselves cool, but a number of our residents do not. We need to be aware and take care of the most vulnerable members of our population if we’re to be successful at being a public health agency.