PHOENIX — Last year was the deadliest on record for heat-related deaths in Arizona. Nearly 1,000 people died, according to recent data shared by Arizona health officials.
Those numbers are an undercount, though, according to researchers who found more Americans died from heat-related illnesses in 2023 than any other year.
In Arizona, the ABC15 Investigators have learned that there is no standardized way that the deaths are counted across the state.
The Arizona Department of Health Services recently finalized its “Heat Related Mortality” report that shows 990 heat-related deaths in 2023, most during the months of May through September.
The report was just finalized this month:
Earlier this year, Arizona’s governor created a preparedness plan that will lay out short and long-term recommendations around extreme heat. As part of the vision, Governor Katie Hobbs appointed the state’s first chief heat officer who will help lead the efforts.
“The Governor’s Extreme Heat Preparedness plan was created to address these tragic deaths,” according to a spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Health Services. “Over the last year, more than 150 partners throughout the state have been gathering data to better understand who is most at risk for heat illness and which interventions would be most effective.”
Across Arizona, each county is required to report heat-related deaths to state health officials but each county tracks the deaths in different ways.
“The timeline may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction in the way that they do report,” said Dr. Eugene Livar, the state’s chief heat officer. “There are overall state guidelines because that's not only the only death data that's being reported.”
In Maricopa County, where 65% of heat-related deaths occurred in 2023, county health officials release weekly reports with the number of deaths that are confirmed and under investigation.
The data includes deaths by age, zip code, and whether a person died indoors or outdoors.
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ABC15 asked Livar if heat deaths are underreported in our state.
“We say in public health, 'if you look, you will find,' right?” he replied.
“I think one of the things is help promoting awareness and let people know what they need to do and how they need to report it, is all,” said Livar. “It is possible that it is underreported on that end.”
Livar said that there really needs to be a standardized approach to reporting heat-related deaths.
ABC15 Investigator Nicole Grigg asked Livar if health officials have considered using a form from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that would collect data about a person’s death in the heat.
The ‘HEAT’ investigation supplement report would allow officials to track data from the location of the death to circumstances that could play a role like if power was on or not.
“I’m so glad you brought this up,” said Livar. “This is one of the things that we're including in our conversations with those public health jurisdictions and the medical offices, medical examiner offices, in those listing sessions, and we provided this to them as an example of granular data that can be looked for and identified within these cases to help keep us better informed from year to year.”
His office has been hosting meetings with public health officials and medical examiner offices to gather feedback on whether there is a standardized or agreeable approach to reporting heat-related deaths across the state moving forward.
“We just got our unified plan for the State of Arizona in March, and we know that we're not going to be able to solve all the issues that are out there related to heat-related deaths or heat-related illnesses in six to nine months,” said Livar.
Livar adds that there is a need for more granular data.
The Arizona Department of Health Services does not have real-time data surrounding the number of deaths across the state. Instead, they track heat-related illnesses by visits to the emergency departments.
So far in Maricopa County, Arizona’s largest county, 150 people have died — with 443 deaths still under investigation.
