Int. No. 1945-A

By Council Members Brannan, Ampry-Samuel, Lander, Kallos, Chin, Constantinides, Ayala, Vallone, Louis, Barron and Rivera

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to annual reporting of heat vulnerability and heat-related deaths

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

Section 1. Chapter 1 of title 17 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new section 17-199.14 to read as follows:

§ 17-199.14 Report on heat vulnerability and heat-related deaths. a. Definitions. For the purposes of this section, the following terms shall have the following meanings:

Heat exacerbated death. The term “heat exacerbated death” means a natural cause death estimated by the department to have resulted from an existing health condition exacerbated by extreme, or near extreme, heat. Such estimation should be determined by the use of one or more statistical models by the department. Beginning with the report due pursuant to subdivision b no later than June 15, 2022, and continuing thereafter, at least one such model shall utilize sensitive statistical methods that assess daily temperature as a continuous variable in relation to daily mortality to estimate heat-exacerbated death, without the use of a qualifying temperature threshold.

Heat stress death. The term “heat stress death” means a death directly attributed to heat on a death certificate, or with an underlying or contributing cause of i) excessive natural heat or ii) effects of heat and light, as such conditions are described in the International Classification of Diseases Version 10 coding system.

Heat vulnerability. The term “heat vulnerability” means the estimated risk of heat stress deaths and heat exacerbated deaths occurring in a geographical area based on social and environmental factors identified by the department.

b. No later than June 15 of each year beginning in 2021, the commissioner shall submit to the mayor and the speaker of the council, and shall post conspicuously on the department’s website, an annual report of the most recent available data on the total number of heat stress deaths and heat exacerbated deaths in the city.

c. The annual report required by subdivision b of this section shall include:

1. the number of heat stress deaths in the most recent year available;

2. the estimation of past heat exacerbated deaths based on the most recent available years of data and the smallest interval of time that yields a reliable estimate;

3. a description of the relative heat vulnerability of each neighborhood tabulation area;

4. a description of reported data;

5. a description of social and environmental factors assessed by the department to determine heat vulnerability;

6. a description of methods used to derive heat vulnerability and estimate heat exacerbated deaths; and

7. aggregate demographic information of heat stress deaths, including, but not limited to, the age, gender, neighborhood tabulation area and the race or ethnicity of the decedents.

d. Except as otherwise provided in this section, no report required by subdivision b of this section shall contain personal identifying information.

e. The commissioner may promulgate such rules as may be necessary to implement the provisions of this section.

f. No later than April 15 of 2022, the department shall report to the mayor and the speaker of the council on its findings or progress regarding the development or adoption for use of any models for estimating the number of heat exacerbated deaths pursuant to the definition of such term in subdivision a.

§ 2. This local law takes effect immediately.

APB/SIL

LS 13897

07/20/20 10:30 pm