Hatch Champions Breat Cancer and Environmental Research Act

Statement

HATCH CHAMPIONS BREAST CANCER AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH ACT

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) today spoke with a bipartisan coalition of Senators and rock-star Sheryl Crow on the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act (S. 579), which authorizes grants for research of environmental factors contributing to breast cancer. Hatch is the original Republican cosponsor of the bill, which is sponsored by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and has 35 Senate cosponsors. Sen. Hatch's prepared remarks follow.

I want to thank you all for coming here to help support the ongoing war against cancer. There are a lot of people up here today who are working together to help win this war, and I'll keep my remarks short so they all get a chance to speak.

We appreciate the star power that someone like Sheryl can bring to our cause. But it's also important to recognize and applaud those who are waging this war who don't grab headlines, but who spend every day in the trenches protecting women from this dreadful affliction. One such warrior in the audience today is from my home state of Utah: Sylvia Rickard, a breast cancer survivor and an advocate with the National Breast Cancer Coalition.

Sylvia has been a leader in breast cancer awareness among Utah's growing Latino population. Immigrants from Latin America and elsewhere provide anecdotal evidence that environment can play a significant role in the development of breast cancer. Women in less-developed nations generally have a lower incidence of the disease, but the daughters of immigrants from such nations to our own see a startling rise in the incidence of breast cancer.

The discrepancy suggests that environmental factors could increase the danger women face. But we don't know what these factors are or what effect they have - and we need to know. This bill will authorize the potentially life-saving research to learn more against a disease that is the No. 1 site of cancerous growth and the No. 2 cancer killer in women.

I want to thank the majority leader, my neighbor from the great state of Nevada, for working with me in reintroducing the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act. Women, and an increasing number of men, out there are fighting against this merciless disease. With this bill, we hope to give them some bigger boxing gloves.

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