This recommendation comes at a time when foreign chemical companies such as Bayer and ChemChina continue to push for immunity from lawsuits brought by farmers, family members, and agricultural workers who develop cancer after long-term exposure to their pesticides.

At the recent Iowa Cancer Summit held by the Consortium, the link between agricultural chemicals and cancer was the topic of many gripping presentations. Experts painted a stark picture of the dangers posed by the pesticides and other ag chemicals that saturate rural Iowa.

The Silent Threat: Chemicals in Every Sip and Breath

“We are each 65% water by weight,” Dr. Sandra Steingraber reminded the audience. “That water is not manufactured by our genes. It is drawn up from the aquifers under our feet.” She spoke passionately about the direct link between environmental exposure and cancer, drawing from her own experience growing up in central Illinois. “Whatever is in the environment is inside of us,” she stated, emphasizing the insidious way that chemicals permeate the human body.

Dr. Steingraber is no stranger to challenging the powerful. A biologist, writer, and cancer survivor, she has dedicated her career to investigating the links between environmental toxins and cancer.

Iowans have heard plenty about the dangers of glyphosate, the active ingredient in the weedkiller Roundup. Among other chemicals under scrutiny are herbicides like dicamba and atrazine. Dicamba is “linked to liver cancer and bile duct cancer,” while atrazine is “linked to lung and prostate cancer,” Steingraber revealed.

“Iowa is the number one corn-producing state. It’s the number one user of weed killers in the nation. So that is the context in which I think you should take a look at these really disturbing, disturbing cancer registry data,” Steingraber said.

Agricultural Health Study: 30 Years of Evidence

Dr. Laura Beane Freeman, an epidemiologist and senior investigator for the National Cancer Institute, presented findings from the Agricultural Health Study (AHS). This 30-year research project tracks cancer and other health outcomes in nearly 90,000 farmers, family members, and pesticide applicators.

Her research corroborates a disturbing pattern. While Iowa farmers in the study have lower cancer rates than the general population (possibly due to lower rates of smoking and drinking and more exercise), they suffer from a significantly higher prevalence of prostate cancer, leukemia, and testicular cancer. Freeman said their research has found a “stronger association” between five pesticides and these cancer rates.

“We do know that some pesticides seem to increase the risk of specific cancers in highly exposed farmers,” Dr. Beane Freeman noted.

Two State Representatives, Dr. Austin Baeth (D-Des Moines) and Hans Wilz (R-Ottumwa), also spoke at the Summit. They discussed their bipartisan legislation to combat Iowa’s second-highest in the nation and fastest-growing cancer rates.

The Baeth-Wilz proposal is a good beginning. However, as the Iowa Cancer Summit made clear, much more must be done.

Iowans expect lawmakers to maintain accountability for chemical corporations like Bayer and ChemChina. And we must be prepared to face a painful reality: the same chemicals that foreign corporations are marketing as safe crop protection tools may also be fueling its cancer epidemic.

Visit the Iowa Cancer Consortium to view the research presented at the 2024 Iowa Cancer Summit, held Oct. 22 in Coralville. Also, check out past articles from Accountable Iowa on the pesticide threat and efforts by chemical conglomerates to avoid accountability here, here, and here.