Florida Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) Program
Lead Organization: Florida State University
Program Name: Florida Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) Program
Summary:
The Florida Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (FLBRACE) Program is working to improve the ability of the public health sector to respond to the health effects of climate variability by incorporating the best available science into routine public health practice. The primary hazards addressed by FLBRACE include extreme heat, wildland fires, flooding, water-borne diseases, and extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and tornados. Primary health outcomes include allergies, asthma, heat-related illness and death, injury, mental health disorders, stress-related disorders, and stroke. FLBRACE primarily assists community health departments, especially those serving vulnerable populations, such as the elderly or residents living in coastal communities. FLBRACE has developed a series of climate and health profiles that identify and describe key risk factors and health impacts anticipated in Florida. Among these is a study of the health effects of tropical storms and hurricanes in Florida using emergency department data, birth records, carbon monoxide poisoning data, and food-borne and water-borne reports. The program has also developed a series of touchstone event summaries that highlight exceptional weather events and related health outcomes in Florida.
Climate-Ready State funded since 2012
Relevant Links
- Working with Climate Projections to Estimate Disease Burden: Perspectives from Public Health: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4997490/external icon
- Occupational heat exposure among municipal workers: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00420-018-1318-3external icon
- Climate-Sensitive Hazards in Florida Report: https://flbrace.org/images/docs/climate-sensitive-hazards-in-florida-final-report.pdfpdf iconexternal icon
To learn more, please visit: https://flbrace.org/external icon
Contact information: Tracy Ippolito (tippolito@fsu.edu)