The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS-CAN) is looking for members.

ACS CAN is a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate that supports legislation designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem.

ACS CAN gives a voice to those impacted by cancer by encouraging lawmakers at all levels to make cancer a priority. By raising issues of importance, raising funds, educating voters and rallying others to the fight against cancer, ACS CAN makes a difference and helps save lives.

Some of the recent accomplishments include:

· Banning smoking in public places.

Secondhand smoke causes not only cancer but also an estimated 46,000 deaths from heart disease in people who are current nonsmokers.

It also causes about 3,400 lung cancer deaths in nonsmoking adults; asthma and asthma-related problems in up to 1 million children; and between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections in children under 18 months with 7,500 to 15,000 hospitalizations each year.

Children exposed to secondhand smoke are much more likely to be put into intensive care when they have the flu, they are in the hospital longer and they are more likely to need breathing tubes than kids who aren't exposed to second-hand smoke.

· Michelle's Law.

Michelle Morse was a full-time college student when she was diagnosed with colon cancer. Knowing the toll chemotherapy treatments would take, Michelle's doctors recommended that she cut back her college course load.

The Morse family discovered that if Michelle was not a full-time student, she would lose her family health insurance. Ann Marie Morse, Michelle's mom, felt that students like Michelle should be allowed a medical leave of up to 12 months to concentrate on their health needs without jeopardizing the insurance they rely on for their treatments.

President George W. Bush signed the bill into law Oct. 8, 2008, making it effective Oct. 9, 2009.

I have met Ann Marie and she still advocates for college students facing the same decision her daughter had to make. Michelle died in 2005.

· Current legislation to ban minors from using tanning beds.

Every time someone between the ages of 15 and 30 uses a tanning bed, the person's risk of getting skin cancer increased by 75 percent.

Dermatologists, pediatricians and major health organizations all agree that tanning beds are dangerous and our youth should not have access.

Indoor tanning devices are classified as "carcinogenic to humans" by the World Health Organization. They are rated in the same group as tobacco and asbestos.

Tanning bed use before the age of 30 increases an individual's lifetime risk of melanoma by 75 percent.

Since 1988, teens reporting use of tanning beds has increased from 1 percent to 27 percent, according to George A. Blough, lead ambassador for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network in West Virgina.

You can be an ASC-CAN member for $10. This membership is for one year and is not tax deductible.

The Whitehall Relay was an ASC-CAN Relay in that we had 100 people become members at our Relay in 2012.

If you want to help us in 2013 and become an ASC-CAN member, please call me at 610-266-5241,