Cancer should not be the price of being Iowan

On our 37th wedding anniversary, instead of celebrating, my wife and I sat across from an oncologist discussing a large mass found on a CT scan. Two weeks later, she underwent radical surgery — her uterus, ovaries, appendix, lymph nodes, and anything else that looked affected were removed. Now she faces 27 weeks of chemotherapy and radiation.

My wife was born and raised on a farm in southern Iowa. Her father and grandfather were lifelong farmers who poured their sweat into the land. Her father died of early-onset Parkinson’s, and now she is battling cancer. The thread tying these tragedies together is not hard to see: a lifetime of exposure to pesticides and herbicides that saturate our fields, groundwater, and air.

Iowa has the highest cancer rates in the nation. That’s not a coincidence. It’s the result of decades of looking away while chemical companies profited, regulators caved to industry, and politicians refused to act.

We are extremely grateful to the doctors and staff at Mercy Medical in Cedar Rapids, who are giving us hope. But they should not have to spend their careers fighting diseases caused by corporate negligence and government inaction. Iowans should not have to accept cancer as the price of living here. It’s time to hold the agricultural chemical industry accountable and finally protect our families.

Thad Overturf

Walker