New Stamp Proposed to Benefit Research

An Ohio Congressman has proposed that a U.S. postage stamp be created to raise money for research on prostate cancer.

Rep. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, has introduced a bill that would require the Postal Service to design and produce a stamp that would cost as much as 8 cents more than the first-class rate (currently 32 cents). The additional money — after the Postal Service has recouped the cost of printing, selling, and distributing the stamps — would go to the National Institutes of Health for research on prostate cancer, which ranks only behind lung cancer in causing cancer deaths among American men.

In August, President Clinton signed a law creating a stamp that supports research on breast cancer. Critics at the time said they feared that that stamp would lead to a flood of requests for similar postage stamps to benefit other causes.