Environmental and health advocates are calling for Utah's governor to help connect the state agencies that regulate the environment and air quality more closely with the Utah Department of Public Health.

"We think public health is better serviced by that kind of an arrangement," said anesthesiologist Dr. Brian Moench, who helped form Utah Physicians for a Health Environment.

Moench; Sen. Pat Jones, D-Salt Lake; the Utah chapter of the Sierra Club; and Utah Moms for Clean Air were among those who signed a letter Monday to Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.

Moench and others in the medical community believe that 80 to 90 percent of cancer in children and adults is caused by environmental contaminants, a claim that they said in the letter is "under-appreciated or poorly understood" by state regulators.

Huntsman was urged in the letter to seek input from the environmental community on the replacement of the governor-appointed director of the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), which oversees the Department of Air Quality (DAQ). Rick Sprott recently announced that he plans to retire from the director position in December. Moench said one concern is that Sprott's replacement would somehow put the needs of industry before public health.

"In our view, the state made a serious mistake many years ago when the DEQ was removed from the umbrella of the Utah Department of Health," the letter states. "The end result has been that public health has not been given the priority it deserves within the state's management of environmental issues. There is virtually no representation of the medical community or public-health experts within the DEQ or DAQ."

Huntsman spokeswoman Lisa Roskelley said the departments are not intended to be "silos" and that the governor expects cabinet members representing overlapping departments to communicate with one another. She said a search to replace Sprott is ongoing.

Moench said the ideal candidate to replace Sprott would be someone with an environmental health background who has a bias toward public health. But he said that the heads of the state health and environment departments have been open and responsive to issues raised by the environmental community, and the wishes it expressed in the letter were not related to their performance.

DEQ spokeswoman Donna Spangler said Monday that some health officials hold seats on state boards that regulate air quality, drinking water, solid and hazardous waste and radioactive-waste issues.

"We work jointly with the local health departments on a variety of issues, i.e. testing for mercury in fish," Spangler said. "The medical community is represented on the various boards."

DEQ director Cheryl Heying pointed out she is married to a physician who is on staff at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

"As you can imagine, we have input into each other's work, all, of course, very open and respecting each other's expertise and position," Heying said in an e-mail.

Heying's husband, Eric Wood, is an instructor and associate residency program director for the Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, and he maintains active research interests in respiratory protection and air pollution.

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com