B REPORT ON CHILDHOOD CANCERS



House Bill 5104

Sponsor: Rep. Laura Baird

Committee: Health Policy


Complete to 8-28-00



A SUMMARY OF HOUSE BILL 5104 AS INTRODUCED 11-4-00


Currently, the Department of Community Health maintains a registry to record cases of cancer and other specified tumorous and precancerous diseases that occur in the state. The information compiled is then used to conduct epidemiologic surveys of cancer and cancer-related diseases in the state. Under provisions of the Public Health Code pertaining to this registry, the director is required to promulgate rules to provide for the reporting of tumorous and precancerous diseases other than cancer, the quality and manner in which the cases and other information are to be reported to the department, and the terms and conditions under which medical records are released by the department. The bill would amend the code to require the director to also promulgate rules pertaining to the reporting of cases of cancer and other tumorous and precancerous diseases that occur in minors.


Under the bill, the director would have to require the reporting of risk factors that may have contributed to a minor contracting cancer or another specified tumorous or precancerous disease. The risk factors would include, but not be limited to, environmental risk factors. An "environmental risk factor" would include at a minimum all of the following:


  1. a parent's occupational exposure to known or suspected carcinogens;

  2. the location of the minor's residence, day care center, or school in relation to permitted sources of air or water pollutants that are known or suspected carcinogens or to one or more sites of environmental contamination that contain known or suspected carcinogens; and

  3. the minor's exposure to known or suspected carcinogens through consumption of game fish or other food products at a rate that is higher than the population at large.

Further, under the code, the department has been required since the late 1980s to publish an annual report summarizing the information collected from the individual reports. Beginning with the last reports collected before the bill's effective date, the bill would require the department to separate from the reports each case of childhood cancer or other specified tumorous or precancerous disease. The department would have to publish and distribute a separate report that summarized these cases by specific type or category, and would have to include the information on risk factors.

The report would have to published at the same time as the currently required report is published each year, which is not later than 180 days after the end of each calendar year.


MCL 333.2619







































Analyst: S. Stutzky


This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan House staff for use by House members in their deliberations, and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.