Maureen Reeves Horsley, originally from a small agricultural county in Iowa, says she can rarely look at local obituaries without seeing someone who has died of cancer.
In Palo Alto County, dozens of residents are diagnosed and die from cancer, as their state becomes one of the few to see progress in the fight against the disease reversed.
And while Horsley remembers a time when the area’s crops were abundant, the lakes were crystal clear and people drank water straight from their farms, residents now wonder if the land they used to live off of was slowly poisoning them.
Palo Alto County is home to approximately 8,800 people and 840 farms and has cancer rates nearly 50 percent higher than the country average.
Horsley, a former nurse, said she is among many Iowans who speculate that the farms families relied on for food and income were actually the source of their illnesses because of toxic pollutants and chemicals used in farming. farming industry.
Chris Green’s husband, Jim Green, died of glioblastoma, a brain cancer, in 2019 after working at an Iowa aluminum plant for 40 years.
Linus Solberg, a farmer and Palo Alto County supervisor, said his father developed prostate cancer and his mother, his wife and three of his neighbors died from different forms of the disease.
She said: ‘As a specialist nurse, I know five people with pancreatic cancer.
‘I know 20 people who have other types of cancer or who died of cancer here. Look at the obituaries in our newspaper. “Everyone is aware that this is happening.”
She aggregate In an interview with The New Lede, she and her family used to drink the water from their farm and later her sister was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 27 and another was diagnosed with uterine cancer.
Unlike most U.S. states, Iowa is among a few where cancer rates have increased over the past five years.
It has the second-highest rate of diagnoses: about 480 per 100,000 people, according to the National Cancer Institute.
In Palo Alto County, cancer rates are the highest among all counties in Iowa and the second highest of all counties in the United States, at around 660 per 100,000 people, according to a US News report found.
This is higher than the national average of 442 cases per 100,000 people.
In 2024, about 21,000 Iowans are expected to be diagnosed with cancer, which, considering their population, represents the second-highest proportion of diagnoses in the country.
About 6,100 people are expected to die.
The state has the fastest growing rate of new cancers and the second highest cancer rate in the country for the second year in a row.
Two issues are feared to be behind the state’s cancer surge: water, soil and air contaminated by chemicals used in the state’s booming agricultural industry and Iowa’s growing alcohol problem.
Mrs Horsley said: ‘In Iowa we are very interested in agriculture. Great use of chemicals. Great nutrient applications. What effect is that having on people? There needs to be more research on this.
‘In the past, farmers lived longer if they didn’t die in an accident on the farm. Now everyone gets checked and discovers they have prostate cancer, glioblastoma, or cancer in the lymph nodes. We need to find out what’s going on.’
In Davenport, Iowa, about 300 miles southeast of Horsley, David Dunn and his wife Sharon Kendall-Dunn have long been concerned about the health effects they may have suffered from farming.
The Dunns told the Lede that 10 years ago, a mass was discovered in David’s abdomen and he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer previously linked to pesticides and farm nitrates.
While the couple does not work or live on a farm, David’s doctor said his environment could be a factor: “You live in Iowa,” the couple recounted the doctor saying.
And two years ago, Sharon was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia, a bone marrow cancer.
Both Dunns grew up in Iowa and know friends and family who have also been diagnosed with cancer, including some who have died from the disease.
In the eastern Iowa farming town of Long Grove, Jim Green, 65, died in 2019 from glioblastoma, a brain cancer.
Before his death, his wife Chris Green told the Lede that he had worked for 39 years at an aluminum plant where he was likely exposed to cancer-causing chemicals.
And Chris said he knows nine other people in his town who have died from the same brain cancer in recent years.
Linus Solberg also knows many people who have been victims of cancer.
The farmer and Palo Alto County supervisor told the Lede that his father developed prostate cancer, his mother died of ovarian cancer, and his wife and three of his neighbors died from various forms of the disease.
He said, ‘So there’s six right there in two miles along this road. I don’t know if it’s pesticide or electrical. We have all these windmills. I don’t know if it’s in the water. I have no idea.’
Each year, the Iowa Cancer Registry and the University of Iowa release a report on how the state’s cancer cases align with the rest of the country.
Dr. Nathan Goodyear, medical director of a comprehensive cancer center in Arizona, previously told DailyMail.com that both alcohol and pesticides are two of the main contributors to an “inhospitable environment” that can increase the risk of cancer.
Agriculture in Iowa accounts for $17.3 billion of the state’s $247 billion gross domestic product, about seven percent. It is the third largest industry in the state.
Palo Alto County farms generate about $800 million annually for Iowa, representing about two percent of the state’s agricultural sales. It has about 361,000 acres of farmland.
The state’s two main crops are corn and soybeans, which require large amounts of pesticides and fertilizers.
In Palo Alto County, hogs, grains and beans are the most important agricultural products.
The state uses 237 million pounds of herbicides and 11.6 billion pounds of fertilizers per year. more than any other state. The level of fertilizer use represents 28 percent of the country’s total each year.
And Iowa’s livestock and poultry industry produces more waste annually than any other state: 109 billion pounds.
Both pesticides and nitrates (a byproduct of fertilizers, manure and oxygen) from animal waste are routinely discharged from farms into water sources. Exposure to these has been associated with an increased risk of brain, breast, bladder, liver, bile duct, and ovarian cancer, as well as non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Dr Goodyear told DailyMail.com that pesticides and agricultural chemicals disrupt hormones, increase inflammation, disrupt the body’s immune system and reduce oxygen levels in cells and tissues.
Officials now also point to a single environmental cause for the rise: a radioactive gas that is leaking from Earth thanks to geological changes that took place during the last ice age.
Thousands of years ago, Iowa and other parts of the Midwest were covered by a gigantic glacier that began eroding the bedrock. Today, it is so worn down in specific areas that radon can leach into the ground and reach people’s homes.
Radon, a naturally occurring radioactive gas released from eroded bedrock, is the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers. according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Iowa Department of Health and Human Services warned That radon can seep through small holes made by wires, pipes, or cracks in a building’s foundation, where it accumulates undetected.
And when someone inhales high levels of the gas, it damages the lining of the lungs, which could lead to cancer. The EPA estimates that about 70 percent of homes in Iowa are at risk of radon exposure.
Determined to get answers to his state’s mysterious cancer epidemic, Solberg has asked local health authorities to do more research. While he knows Iowa universities have investigated the issue, he said not enough is being done to mitigate the risks.
In an attempt to step up efforts, Iowa health officials have said they are expanding screening programs for breast, lung, prostate and colon cancer.
They are also advising residents about smoking and a healthy diet and testing drinking water supplies, as well as testing homes for radon.