Education is Prevention: Maryland Passes Legislation to Develop Education Campaigns on Prostate, Lung, and Breast Cancer Prevention

In May 2024, Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed into law SB 938--the “Maryland Department of Health - Public Education Campaign on Prostate, Lung, and Breast Cancer Prevention”. The bill requires the Department of Health to develop a three-year public education campaign with input from a range of health community members including physicians, hospitals and health care associations. By working with a variety of stakeholders, the campaign aims to meet people where they are at in terms of care, educating groups like rural residents of the state that are disproportionately impacted by those three cancers.

The campaign is still exploring and prioritizing measurable goals, but some proposals include:

• Emphasizing alternative crops for agricultural land now used for growing tobacco
• Reducing tobacco usage among residents under the age of 21
• Decreasing tobacco use through public school education campaigns, with initial emphasis on areas targeted by tobacco manufacturer marketing and promotional campaigns
• Increasing screening rates for prostate, lung and breast cancer

The campaign has an implementation goal of 2026.

Maryland’s efforts take critical steps toward improve cancer prevention and should serve as a model for other states. Forty-five percent of all cancer deaths in the United States have risk factors that can be modified to reduce cancer incidence. Preventive measures like reducing smoking, or early detection efforts like increased screening, require comparatively small resource investment but pay high dividends in time, money and, most importantly, lives saved.