urban areas up from 64 in 1950 according to a study from the university of michigan about 89 of the us population will live in an urban area by 2050 workforce imbalances leave some exposed people of color are also disproportionately exposed to extreme heat through their occupations according to health research organization kff researchers found that noncitizen and latino migrant workers respectively make up 50 and 75 of agricultural workers in the us its a group thats about 20 times more likely to die from heatrelated illnesses compared to other usbased workers the organization says more how heat waves climate change put people with disabilities at risk some of the big concerns are that the exposure to extreme heat is just one thing that may lead to so many other issues with regards to access to foods with regards to people being able to go out to work and provide for their families and afford a lot of things said nambi ndugga a policy analyst with kffs racial equity and health policy program jon david de leon with the nonprofit eagles flight advocacy and outreach delivers a fan to juanita alarcon to help cope with the heat in san antonio texas july 11 show more lisa krantzreuters lowincome households especially those in predominantly black hispanic or indigenous communities may have a hard time accessing cooling centers or using air conditioners due to the high cost of energy bills experts say we need to be making sure that people have access to air conditioning in their homes and we know that communities of color have disproportionately lower access to air conditioning and the ability to run it rachel licker the principal climate scientist at the science advocacy group union of concerned scientists told abc news obviously thats becoming more and more of an issue as energy bills are increasing right now more climate activists with disabilities fight for inclusion health disparities can lead to increased risks health disparities often plague black hispanic and indigenous communities thanks to inequities in healthcare access quality insurance access to healthy foods and other factors a report in everyday health found these groups experience cardiovascular and respiratory diseases such as heart disease hypertension and asthma at higher rates which could increase ones risk of being hospitalized or dying from extreme heat as well health experts say extreme heat can worsen or aggravate existing health conditions the cdc found we know that those communities have disproportionately lower access to quality health care to deal with healthrelated issues as a result of extreme heat said licker