A new report looks at how environmental factors in Iowa could affect cancer rates, which rank second-worst in the nation.
The report from the Iowa Environmental Council and the Harkin Institute summarizes peer-reviewed scientific research surrounding cancer risk and environmental factors, like nitrate, PFAS, radon and pesticides.
Michael Schmidt, with the Iowa Environmental Council, says many Iowans seem unsure of how the environment could affect their cancer risk.
“So what’s in the water we drink, the air that we breathe, the soil, those were being discussed a lot less,” Schmidt says, “and people just didn’t have information about what the risks were or what they can do about it.”
Schmidt says they found some correlation between areas with environmental risk factors and cancer.
“For 13 of 16 cancer sites, Iowa exceeded the U.S. incident rate for these types of cancer that are associated with environmental risk factors,” he says, “so people were right to be concerned.”
Iowa has the second highest rate of cancer in the country, behind only Kentucky, and Iowa is one of only a few states with a rising cancer rate, according to the Iowa Cancer Registry.
