The American Cancer Society's non-profit advocacy affiliate has released a report outlining how Montana legislative activity affects cancer prevention outcomes.
The Cancer Action Network's state-by-state report finds that Montana's falling short on its cancer fighting policies.
The Cancer Society estimates over 1-point-6 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer this year and more than half a million will die of the disease this year. In Montana, its estimated over 5-thousand people will get a cancer diagnosis in 2013 and 2-thousand will succumb to the disease.
In this interview Cancer Action Network's Montana Government Relations director, Kristin Page Nei, explains what's working well in Montana and what needs improvement.
The report provides a color-coded chart of 11 specific policies. A "green" means the state's adopted evidence-based policies and best practices. Yellow means moderate movement toward the benchmark and red means a state's policies are falling short. The first policy centers around smoke-free laws, for which Montana received a "green" color.