A 755: 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, speaker of the assembly and the governor.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 755 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN ASSEMBLY (Prefiled) January 8, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. PAULIN -- read once and referred 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 
 A. 755 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.