In Des Moines a bipartisan group of House and Senate members are forming a “cancer caucus” to raise awareness and share collective knowledge among legislators and their constituents about a large group of different diseases that claim more than 6,000 Iowans’ lives every year, and CanSAR member Gail Orcutt was a major contributor. Prevention, treatment, and cures are what Iowans are interested in according to Rep. Scott Raecker, R-Urbandale, whose father died from melanoma – a dangerous form of skin cancer. Most all families in Iowa have been touched by some type of cancer. To organize the caucus and decide its role in the policy-making arena, 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, president of the Iowa Cancer Consortium and director of the University of Iowa’s Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Lobbyist Peggy Huppert stated hopes that the Legislature approve a requirement that all residences and other structures be tested for the presence of radon. Iowa's radon problem leads the nation taking about 400 lives from Iowa each year.
Gail was among the advocates pushing for a comprehensive approach to prevention, detection and mitigation of radon. She is a survivor of radon-induced lung cancer, having contracted the disease in 2009 that required surgery to remove her left lung. Gail says she was blessed to have survived after being told that she had lung cancer and remembers thinking "I'm dead." She hadn't known anyone who had survived lung cancer.
Eleanor Mildenstein, a Southeast Junior High School seventh-grader was also present at the Capital to educate the public about the danger of radon and tell about her research project last year which included testing 80 Iowa City homes. Eleanor encouraged lawmakers to change Iowa law to allow the over-the-counter sale of reasonably priced over-the-counter detectors, and lobbied for changes to require passive radon mitigation systems in new home construction which would reduce the cost of a system to a few hundred dollars.
Representative Raecker indicated that radon was one of the issues that the legislative caucus would discuss; however, he reluctant to say the solution would be for the state to mandate tests in all homes without more information and a look at what the consequences will be. Gail replied that her group would ask for all of the items discussed. Representative Joe Bolkcom indicated that he thinks the caucus will be a forum for discussions and hopefully policy action.
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