Cancer-related concerns in the First State recently raised in a series of News Journal articles are not new. During my first term as Delaware’s governor in the early 1990’s, we learned that Delaware’s cancer mortality rate was the highest in the country. Delaware’s state motto is, “It’s good to be first.” However, there are some things you don’t want to be first in. Cancer mortality is near the top of that list. 

Over a dozen years ago, we pulled together some very smart people and asked them to figure out why Delaware’s incidence of cancer was not sky high, but our cancer mortality rate was. After doing their homework, they concluded that we weren’t doing a good job of early detection and treatment of cancer. They suggested an action plan and, working with the General Assembly and others, we went to work to implement it.

Encouraged by our administration, the General Assembly passed laws to require that health insurance coverage for screenings, including breast, colorectal and cervical cancers. The state began offering breast, cervical, colorectal and prostate screening for many of the uninsured and underinsured in Delaware through the Screening for Life program. To reduce the threat of second-hand smoke, the General Assembly passed Delaware’s first ban on smoking in many public places. Steps were taken to make tobacco products much harder for under-age Delawareans to obtain. 

In the Navy, when something was hard to do, we oftentimes likened it to turning an aircraft carrier. The same can be said of reducing a state’s cancer mortality rate, because many forms of cancer develop over several decades, not several months or years. But just as it’s possible to turn a carrier if you stick with it, it’s also possible to reduce cancer mortality. Very slowly, cancer mortality in Delaware, compared to other states, began to drop. Thanks to the leadership of Governor Minner and others, it has continued to drop, falling to seventh place in the nation in 2004, the last year cancer mortality statistics are available.

The News Journal’s series on cancer clusters and corridors in Delaware reminds all of us, though, that while progress has been made on this front over the past dozen years, there’s still plenty of work to do. 

There are many risk factors for cancer, including genetics, diet and age. Environmental factors, such as poor air quality can also lead to higher-than-average cancer rates, particularly for those living along heavily-traveled interstate highways like I-95 and I-495. For instance, we know that breathing particulate matter, or soot, from older diesel engines can damage our lungs and cause cancer.

There is no panacea to reduce the environmental-risk factors that lead to cancer, but there are efforts underway – at both the state and federal level – that can help bring our cancer rates down further. Whether it’s putting more low-emission cars and trucks on the road; generating electricity without emitting harmful pollutants; or encouraging more Delawareans to ride on Amtrak, SEPTA or DART, there are many important steps we can take as a state and as a nation to help make our air cleaner and our lives healthier. 

Cleaner, Fuel-efficient Vehicles

First, we can make vehicles traveling our highways more efficient and less polluting. Last December, the President signed landmark legislation I co-authored to increase the efficiency of new cars and trucks by 10 miles per gallon, to 35 miles per gallon by model year 2020. Given the run-up in gasoline prices since then, I’m betting that market forces will compel vehicle manufacturers to meet and exceed that 35 mpg target well before 2020.

To help get us there, the U.S. government is investing $100 million this year to spur development of a lithium-ion battery for plug-in hybrid vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt. GM hopes to have the Volt rolling off its assembly lines in the second half of 2010. The Volt will run for the first 40 miles each day on its battery – enough to handle many commutes in Delaware – without using a drop of gas. For longer trips, plug-in hybrids will use auxiliary power to recharge the battery and effectively raise fuel efficiency to as much 80 miles per gallon, thus emitting roughly one-third of the pollution of a car today.

Consumers can now earn tax credits of as much as $3,500 per vehicle by purchasing energy-efficient hybrid and low-emission, diesel-powered vehicles as they come to market. Although late to the game, this summer, Chrysler will launch hybrid Dodge Durangos and Chrysler Aspens, SUVs built in Delaware. Their mileage in town will jump by almost 50 percent to 22 mpg, while reaching close to 30 mpg on the highway. Along with other GM products, the popular Saturn Aura and Chevrolet Malibu are now available with hybrid power plants as are a growing variety of vehicles built by Ford.

To help commercialize energy efficient vehicles, federal law now requires that 70 percent of the new cars, trucks and vans purchased by the U.S. government and by the U.S. Postal Service be energy-efficient, advanced-technology vehicles.

Alternatives To Vehicle Travel

Deploying lower-emission vehicles is not enough to protect the public health in communities along our highways. We’re also working to give Americans more alternatives to driving in the first place. 

Among those alternatives is expanded passenger rail service not just in the Northeast Corridor but in densely-popular corridors across America. Today, Amtrak helps meet the transportation needs of millions of Americans and thousands of businesses nationwide, including more than 700,000 Delaware riders each year. Amtrak ridership and revenue are up 15 percent in 2008 after growing nearly 10 percent last year, which means fewer cars on the road. SEPTA ridership is experiencing growth, and we’re working in Congress to further expand SEPTA service in Delaware.

For those without easy access to rail, our congressional delegation is garnering federal support to purchase new, lower-emission diesel-hybrid buses for use by DART passengers and to develop and use zero-emission fuel cell buses at the University of Delaware’s Newark campus.

Making commutes easier could also mean making them shorter, or avoiding them all together. Last year’s federal transportation bill authorized construction that will hasten the introduction of highway-speed, EZ-Pass lanes at our I-95 toll plaza, reducing smog-producing backups along that corridor. Similarly, continued federal support of our DelTrac traffic management system helps expedite traffic flow and maximize the capacity of our existing roadways. And, the growth of telecommuting by federal and other employees reduces travel-related emissions even more.

Reduce Pollution from Power Plants

Generation of electric power, particularly by coal-fired plants in the Midwest, is another major cause of Delaware’s air pollution. To reduce these emissions, I have introduced legislation which has attracted support from both environmental groups and utilities locally and nationwide, as well as bipartisan support from a dozen other senators, including Delaware’s Sen. Joe Biden.

By 2015, this legislation would cut harmful mercury emissions by 90 percent, and nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide that produce smog and acid rain by 70 and 80 percent respectively. As an added benefit, our legislation would reduce carbon dioxide emissions, a leading cause of global warming. 

In addition to cleaning up power plants, we are also working in Congress to extend tax incentives beyond 2008 to expand the availability of non-emitting sources of electricity from the increasingly efficient solar cells produced by GE in Delaware and from proposed off-shore wind farms. States are beginning to require that increasing amounts of electricity produced by their utilities be from renewable forms of energy. Congress is likely to require that for our nation next year, in addition to already providing incentive for new nuclear power plants.

Moreover, we’re beginning to enable utilities to earn money not just by generating and selling more energy but by helping their customers consume less of it. And because the cleanest form of electricity is the one that is never used in the first place, Congress continues to develop stronger energy efficiency standards for appliances, lighting and electronics, enabling us to avoid building scores of additional power plants across America.

Finally, one of the most cost-effective things we can do to reduce the threat of cancer along transportation corridors in Delaware and America is to retrofit more of the tens of thousands of older diesel-powered trucks, buses, trains and boats with available technology that reduces their emissions of cancer-causing soot and particulates. Doing so produces a $13 health benefit for every $1 we invest in this effort, which Senator George Voinovich (R-OH) and I are leading.

There are no silver bullets in the fight against cancer her at home and throughout our country, but we have a good idea of what works. Like they say in those Nike ads, we need to just do it.

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