Requires the department of health examine heat-related deaths in the state of New York; requires the department to issue a report to the temporary president of the senate and speaker of the assembly.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5056
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
February 18, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sen. RIVERA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Health
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to requiring the
department of health examine heat vulnerability and heat-related
deaths
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The public health law is amended by adding a new section
2 212 to read as follows:
3 § 212. Heat vulnerability and heat-related deaths. 1. For the purposes
4 of this section, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
5 (a) "Heat-exacerbated death" means a death caused by natural causes
6 estimated by the department to have resulted from an existing health
7 condition exacerbated by extreme, or near extreme, heat.
8 (i) Such estimation shall be determined using one or more statistical
9 models by the department.
10 (ii) At least one such model used by the department shall utilize
11 sensitive statistical methods that assess daily temperature as a contin-
12 uous variable in relation to daily mortality to estimate heat-exacerbat-
13 ed deaths, without the use of a qualifying temperature threshold.
14 (iii) One such model shall utilize sensitive statistical methods that
15 assess daily temperature as a continuous variable in relation to daily
16 mortality to estimate heat-exacerbated deaths, without the use of a
17 qualifying temperature threshold.
18 (b) "Heat stress death" means a death directly attributed to heat on a
19 death certificate, or with an underlying or contributing cause of (i)
20 excessive natural heat or (ii) the effects of heat and light, as such
21 conditions are defined in the most recent edition of the International
22 Classification of Diseases, published by the World Health Organization.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00862-01-5
S. 5056 2
1 (c) "Heat vulnerability" means the estimated risk of heat stress
2 deaths and heat exacerbated deaths occurring in a geographical area
3 based on social and environmental factors identified by the department.
4 2. The department is hereby authorized and directed to issue an annual
5 report examining heat vulnerability and heat-related deaths in the
6 state. Such report shall include but not be limited to:
7 (a) the number of heat stress deaths in the most recent year avail-
8 able;
9 (b) the estimation of past heat-exacerbated deaths based on the most
10 recent available years of data and the smallest interval of time that
11 yields a reliable estimate;
12 (c) a description of the relative heat vulnerability of each census
13 tract;
14 (d) a description of reported data;
15 (e) a description of social and environmental factors assessed by the
16 department to determine heat vulnerability;
17 (f) a description of methods used to derive heat vulnerability and
18 estimate heat-exacerbated deaths; and
19 (g) the aggregate demographic information of heat stress deaths,
20 including, but not limited to, the age, gender, census tract and the
21 race or ethnicity of the decedents.
22 3. No report required by this section shall contain personal identify-
23 ing information.
24 4. The commissioner shall promulgate rules and regulations as may be
25 necessary to implement the provisions of this section.
26 5. Such report shall be submitted to the temporary president of the
27 senate and the speaker of the assembly no later than June fifteenth, two
28 thousand twenty-six and annually thereafter. Such report shall be
29 conspicuously posted on the department's website.
30 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
