Butte-Silver Bow Board of Health sanctions new committee that would focus on health studies, including a recently released study on brain cancer.
The Butte-Silver Bow Board of Health has sanctioned the creation of a new committee that would focus on various studies about the health of Butte-Silver Bow residents.
The board’s sanction came at its Jan. 8, 2020 regular meeting. The issue now moves to the county’s Council of Commissioners for its prospective sanction. The request for commissioners’ sanction will occur at the council’s next regular meeting, Jan. 22.
The new health study committee, which would be an advisory subcommittee to the Board of Health, would focus on studies such as the community health needs assessments conducted every three years in Butte, air quality studies, and cancer studies conducted by the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services and others, such as Suzanne McDermott, PhD, of the University of South Carolina, who has recently published two cancer studies on Butte-Silver Bow and Anaconda-Deer Lodge.
The committee would be chaired by Butte-Silver Bow Health Officer Karen Sullivan. Should the Council of Commissioners sanction the committee, the county’s chief executive would appoint its members, representing the Board of Health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, Montana Technological University, and St. James Healthcare. Members could also include ex-officio representatives from private industry. Once the committee is prospective formulated, it would create a charter and bylaws as it begins to discuss the various health studies focused on Butte.