Lawmakers forming bipartisan ‘cancer caucus’

DES MOINES - A bipartisan group of House and Senate members is forming a “cancer caucus” to raise awareness and share collective knowledge among legislators and their constituents about a large collection of different diseases that claim more than 6,000 Iowans' lives every year.

“I think it's an issue that all Iowans are interested in - prevention, treatment and cures,” said Rep. Scott Raecker, R-Urbandale, whose father died from the dangerous form of skin cancer called melanoma. “Very few Iowans have not been touched in some way within their immediate family with cancer.”

Raecker, Rep. Dan Kelley, D-Newton, and Sens. Pat Ward, R-West Des Moines, and Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, have held an initial telephonic meeting with Dr. George Weiner, director of the University of Iowa's Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, to organize the caucus and to decide what its role, if any, will be in the policy-making arena.

“We see it as a bridge-building opportunity between the parties and between the chambers,” Raecker said. “It does give us a platform to talk about issues.”

Whether that expands into thorny political debates remains to be seen, however, he said.

For instance, members of the American Cancer Society said Wednesday they hope the split-control Legislature will revisit cuts made to anti-tobacco programs last session that reduced the effort to $2.8 million and effectively ended the Just Eliminate Lies (JEL) youth tobacco prevention program. However, Raecker, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, doubted there would be support to return to the $7.8 million funding level this session.

“Our (House Republican) caucus believes that decision was made last year,” he said.

Also, cancer society lobbyist Peggy Huppert said her group and others would like to see the Legislature approve a requirement that all residences and other structures be tested for the presence of radon - a naturally occurring, invisible and odorless radioactive gas that seeps into buildings through cracks in walls and foundations. Radon exposure is the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers, and Iowa's radon problem leads the nation. The gas, produced by decaying uranium deposited in the soil by glacial activity, kills more than 21,000 Americans each year - and about 400 of those victims are Iowans.

Eleanor Mildenstein, a seventh-grader at Iowa City's South East Junior High School, was on hand to speak about the danger of radon. She began a research project last year by testing 80 Iowa City homes for the substance.

Mildenstein encouraged lawmakers to change Iowa law to allow the over-the-counter sale of reasonably priced radon detectors. She also lobbied for changes to require radon mitigation systems in new home construction. That would reduce the cost from a few thousand dollars to a few hundred, she said.

Raecker said radon is one of the issues that the legislative caucus would discuss, but he was uncertain whether the solution would be for the state to mandate tests in every structure where Iowans live.

“We need to get more information before we would just move down and create a mandate,” Raecker said.

Huppert said another issue anti-tobacco coalition members want to see taken up this session is expanding the state's Smokefree Air Act to the gambling floors in state-licensed casinos - an issue that has failed to gain support since the law prohibiting smoking in most workplaces was passed with casinos exempted.

The Gazette Des Moines Bureau's James Q. Lynch contributed to this report.