Heat waves are becoming more frequent as a result of climate change, and L.A. County’s Department of Public Health has released a tracker that will provide near-real-time (weekly) tracking of heat-related emergency room visits and deaths.

The tracker uses heat illness data collected from physician diagnoses and patient complaints and stratifies daily emergency room (ER) visits and mortalities by categories like race and ethnicity and age.

So far, according to an article by Los Angeles Times, the tracker has found that individuals over the age of 65 are at a higher risk for heat illness and the locations with the most ER visits due to heat are San Fernando, San Gabriel, and Antelope valleys.

Associate professor of urban planning and geography Kelly Turner commented on the link between heat illness and social inequality, stating that “A heat death or heat illness is dependent on who you are and what assets you have… If you have air conditioning or not, if you work outside or you don’t, all of those factors factor in.” 

Public health officials and experts anticipate the tracker’s use in keeping the public updated during extreme heat.