STAND.
COM. REP. NO. 186
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2025
RE: H.B. No. 1300
H.D. 1
Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura
Speaker, House of Representatives
Thirty-Third State Legislature
Regular Session of 2025
State of Hawaii
Madame:
Your Committee on Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 1300 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CANCER,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to the University of Hawai‘i Cancer Center to conduct a multiethnic cohort study focusing on the social determinants of health, lifestyles, environmental exposures, and resilience factors of Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, and Filipinos, including an analysis of the health effects and risks of individuals living in close proximity to landfills in Nanakuli, Oahu.
Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure
from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs; University of Hawai‘i
Cancer Center; University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa John A. Burns School of
Medicine; Hawai‘i Primary Care Association; The Queen's
Health Systems; American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network; Iron Workers
Stabilization Fund; Lou's Quality Home Health Care Services, LLC; Advanced Care
Training, LLC; Philippine Nurses Association; and four individuals.
Your Committee finds
that while cancer incidences and mortality rates have decreased in Hawaii over
the last decade, disparities between ethnic populations continues to be an area
of concern, particularly with Native Hawaiians, who experience higher
incidences of breast and ovarian cancers, and Filipino women, who experience
higher incidences of ovarian and thyroid cancers. Your Committee believes that there is a need
to identify the root causes of these disparities, including determining health
risks associated with living in close proximity to certain environmental
hazards and exposures like county and private waste landfills.
Your Committee further
finds that the University of Hawai‘i Cancer Center is one of
seventy-one National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers in the United States
and the only center in the Hawaii and Pacific region, which allows the University
of Hawai‘i Cancer
Center to conduct research that cannot be easily conducted anywhere else in the
world. This measure is intended to
address concerning health disparities by appropriating funds to enable the University
of Hawai‘i Cancer
Center to conduct vital cancer research focusing on Native Hawaiians, Pacific
Islanders, and Filipinos.
Your
Committee has amended this measure by changing the effective date to July 1,
3000, to encourage further discussion.
Your
Committee respectfully requests your Committee on Finance, should it deliberate
on this measure, to consider an appropriation amount of $500,000 for each year
of the fiscal biennium.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1300, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1300, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Higher Education.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,
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____________________________ GREGG TAKAYAMA, Chair |