By Donnelle Eller, Des Moines Register
Nation-leading pesticide use, high nitrate and forever chemical levels in Iowa waters, and elevated radon exposure are among the environmental factors linked to the state’s rising cancer rates, according to a new report from the Iowa Environment Council and Harkin Institute for Public Policy.
“It can be challenging to discuss the ways in which pollution, naturally occurring environmental hazards, and agriculture contribute to cancer in Iowa,” the report, released Wednesday, March 25, said. “Farming and industry are woven throughout Iowa’s history, livelihoods and cultural identity.
“However, many studies have found that environmental pollution is linked to cancer through a number of pathways,” the report said.
The IEC and Harkin Institute spent about a year examining cancer research, assessing existing data, and consulting with nearly a dozen doctors and public health experts to write the report. The groups, along with the Iowa Farmers Union, also hosted 16 listening sessions across the state last year, attracting about 550 Iowans.
“For decades, we have rightly emphasized individual risk factors — smoking, diet, alcohol consumption, obesity, the lack of physical activity” as contributing factors to Iowa’s cancer rates, said Richard Deming, a Des Moines oncologist and the founder of Above + Beyond Cancer, a nonprofit that provides support for those impacted by cancer.
“These still matter, but they do not fully explain” Iowa’s cancer rates, Deming said, a co-author of the report at a press conference Wednesday in Des Moines.
Iowa has the second-highest rate of new cancers nationally and is one of only three states with rising new cancer rates, according to this year’s Cancer in Iowa report. Possibly the most concerning: The rate of new cancers among young adults in the state — those from 20 to 39 years old — ranks second highest nationally, the report says.
“These numbers not only demand our attention, they demand an explanation, and they demand action,” Deming said.
Here’s what to know about the report:
‘If you live in Iowa, your risk of being diagnosed with cancer is meaningfully higher’
Iowans are expected to be diagnosed with 21,700 new, invasive cancers this year, with 6,400 residents expected to die, the Cancer in Iowa report said. The number of cancer survivors in Iowa is expected to grow to 175,290.
“If you live in Iowa, your risk of being diagnosed with cancer is meaningfully higher than if you lived in almost any other state,” Deming said. “Cancer is now the second leading cause of death in Iowa” after heart disease.
The IEC and Harkin Institute report said the cancer incidence for people under 50 in Iowa is rising faster than the national average.
Abbey Loughman, executive director of Wings of Hope Cancer Support Center in Council Bluffs, said in an interview that her nonprofit is helping more young Iowans diagnosed with cancer. “There’s a lot of fear,” especially for parents with young children, she said.
Patients and communities want to know what’s causing Iowa’s cancer rates, Loughman said, adding that the disease places tremendous burdens on families, both financially and emotionally. Lost work time, lost income, “it all just ripples through a community,” said Loughman, whose group provides counseling and helps with costs like gas, groceries, wigs and prosthetics.
Iowa’s nation-leading ag production ‘doesn’t come for free’
Iowa ranks fourth nationally for the amount of pesticides it used between 2015 and 2019, trailing behind California, Florida and Illinois, according to the IEC-Harkin report.
Iowa is a top U.S. producer of corn, soybeans, pork, eggs, turkey, beef and milk. But that production “doesn’t come for free,” said Kerri Johannsen, the Iowa Environmental Council’s senior policy and programs director.
“That level of production is happening in a heavily concentrated way, in a really chemically heavy way … and we see it having an impact on the health of people in our state,” Johannsen said in an interview.
The pesticides most heavily used in Iowa are glyphosate, acetochlor and atrazine — weedkillers that are associated with cancers that include colorectal, lung, kidney and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the report said.
The European Union banned the use of atrazine and acetochlor, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has determined the pesticides are safe to use in America.
Compared to Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska and Indiana — other ag-heavy Midwestern states — Iowa was the leading user of acetochlor and glyphosate from 1999 to 2019, the report said, with the Hawkeye state’s glyphosate use more than tripling over that time.
Cancer associations are happening at low nitrate levels
Nitrate concentrations in Iowa are among the highest in the United States, according to the IEC-Harkin report. A Polk County report last year showed that the “Des Moines and Raccoon rivers rank in the top 1% of rivers nationwide for nitrate concentration, with 80% of this contamination originating from agricultural sources.”
Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and other Iowa cities and towns struggled last summer with near record-high nitrate levels in their drinking water sources that threatened to overwhelm their treatment capacity and ability to meet safety standards. For the first time ever, Central Iowa Water Works, which provides drinking water to 600,000 Des Moines-area residents, banned lawn watering for nearly two months to curb demand.
Nitrogen fertilizer and manure from confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, are contributing to Iowa’s high nitrate levels, the IEC-Harkin report states. With nearly 4,000 CAFOs, Iowa has about 2.5 times as many facilities as the next highest state — Minnesota, the report states.
“A November 2025 literature review of studies conducted between 2016 and 2024 on the health effects of nitrate found patterns of increased risk for cancer, particularly of the urinary tract, bladder, kidney, prostate and thyroid,” the report states.
“Especially noteworthy is that associations with cancer for many of these studies appear at nitrate concentrations below the current EPA safe drinking water limit of 10” milligrams per liter,” it says.
Radon exposure estimated to kill more Iowans than drunk driving
Radon is a colorless, tasteless and odorless gas that is formed with the decay of radium, a naturally occurring radioactive metal found at high levels in the soil across Iowa, the IEC-Harkin report says.
The statewide average across all Iowa counties was eight picocuries per liter, based on results from basements, crawlspaces and subbasements, the report said. It’s double the level that the federal government recommends residents take action to mitigate exposure.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer Radon has identified radon as carcinogenic to humans. It’s the second-leading cause of lung cancer behind smoking in the United States and Iowa, the IEC-Harkin report says.
“Radon exposure is estimated to kill more people per year than drunk driving, totaling approximately 21,000 deaths per year in the United States,” including about 400 Iowans, the report says.
PFAS chemicals — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances that have been heavily used in manufacturing — have been detected in multiple water sources in Iowa. One report showed that PFAS were detected in 94% of Iowa’s surface waters and 30% of its groundwater samples, the IEC-Harkin report states.
“Much of the existing epidemiological evidence suggests strong, consistent associations between kidney and testicular cancers and PFAS exposure,” the report states.
Report recommends changes to reduce Iowa’s cancer burden
The IEC-Harkin report recommends several changes that could help reduce Iowa’s cancer burden. Among them:
- Increase access to free and low-cost radon testing for Iowans and provide financial assistance to help pay for radon mitigation, especially for low-income residents.
- Fund the Iowa Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund that voters approved in 2010 to support water quality conservation, trails and parks. Iowa lawmakers have declined to pass a three-eighths-cent-per-dollar sales tax to funnel an estimated $187.5 million into the fund annually. The money would help prevent pollution from reaching waterways, restore soil health, and protect access to outdoor recreation opportunities, the groups say.
- Support an EPA human health risk assessment of the federal drinking water standard to determine if the limit should be lowered. “In the absence of federal action, states — including Iowa — should adopt a more protective nitrate standard that fully accounts for both acute and chronic health risks,” the groups say.
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