With new areas eligible under RECA and an increased compensation amount, Intermountain Health is inviting downwinders to attend public informational meetings in the Provo-Orem area and Salt Lake City — in addition to Idaho Falls — this week. Applications will be available on site.

Intermountain Health’s Downwinders Clinic, located in St. George Regional Hospital’s Cancer Center, has offered free programs for downwinders, including education, health care assistance and help with RECA payment applications  — even during the federal program’s 13-month hiatus, when Congress failed to reauthorize it.

After Congress in July approved its massive spending bill, which included the reauthorization of RECA, patients in the expansion areas, who have recently been diagnosed with cancer, or who didn’t know about the program are eligible for compensation.

However, those who have already been compensated by the program aren’t able to apply for additional funds.

In the past RECA allowed for payments of $50,000 and only 10 counties in the state were covered by the program. But now, payments will be $100,000 for new applicants and all of Utah is considered an affected area. So, those who lived in the state for at least 12 months between 1951 and 1962 and contracted a certain type of cancer may be entitled for compensation.

According to Intermountain Health, eligible cancers haven’t changed. They include leukemia — but not chronic lymphocytic leukemia — multiple myeloma, lymphomas (other than Hodgkin’s), and primary cancers of the pharynx, small intestine, salivary gland, brain, stomach, urinary bladder, colon, thyroid, pancreas, breast, esophagus, bile ducts, liver, gall bladder, lung, and ovarian.