In March, representatives from the Massachusetts Health Care Climate Alliance and Health Care Without Harm met with five state legislators from Western Massachusetts to discuss how mitigating and adapting to climate change can protect public health and contain health care costs.

Dr. Gerald 'Wook' Beltran, emergency medicine physician and chief of the Division of Prehospital and Disaster Medicine at Baystate Health, talked about ensuring clinical and operational continuity during extreme weather events and emphasized the importance of integrating climate risks into community emergency preparedness planning efforts.

Health Care Without Harm’s Paul Lipke shared information about a bill (MA H. 3501/S. 732) introduced this session that will require any new or revised policy or regulation that impacts polluting emissions to take health impacts and health costs (or avoided impacts and costs) into consideration.