Gazette Daily News Podcast: Monday, Mar. 25, 2024

– Cancer in Iowa: What you need to know about Iowa’s soaring cancer rates

– Cancer in Iowa: What role does agriculture play in Iowa’s high cancer rates?

– Future of Hills Elementary to be decided Tuesday by Iowa City school board

Episode Transcript

Welcome to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast for Monday, March 25th, 2024. This podcast provides the latest headlines from the Gazette newsroom. I’m Becky Lutgen Gardner.

First, Cancer in Iowa: Iowa’s soaring cancer rates. According to the 2024 "Cancer in Iowa" report, Iowa has the second-highest cancer rate in the nation for the second year in a row, with an estimated 21,000 new cases expected this year alone.

The report paints a grim picture: two in five Iowans will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. Even more concerning, Iowa has the fastest-growing rate of new cancers in the country.

Researchers have identified four types of cancer that disproportionately affect Iowans:

Iowa has a high prevalence of prostate cancer. This year, an estimated 2,850 new cases are expected, making it the second most common cancer in the state.

Lung cancer rates in Iowa are stubbornly high. An estimated 2,700 new cases are projected this year, making it potentially the most fatal cancer in the state.

Iowa also has one of the fastest-increasing rates of melanoma in the country. This serious form of skin cancer is expected to comprise about 7% of new cases this year.

The question of why Iowa has such high cancer rates remains unanswered. The Iowa Cancer Consortium is actively researching potential causes. While some risk factors, like age and genetics, are unavoidable, others are linked to lifestyle choices.

There are preventable risk factors. Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer in Iowa. The report highlights the alarming statistic that at least a quarter of Iowa adults currently use tobacco products.

Physical inactivity and unhealthy diets are associated with an increased risk of various cancers. The report finds that nearly half of Iowans don't achieve recommended activity levels, and food insecurity poses a barrier to healthy eating.

The report also acknowledges the potential role of environmental factors. Iowa has high levels of naturally occurring carcinogens, such as radon, arsenic, and uranium.

Additionally, human activities contribute contaminants like nitrates, pesticides, and PFAS to the environment. The newly formed Task Force within the Iowa Cancer Consortium studies these environmental links.

Iowa’s stubbornly high cancer rate can’t be blamed on just one thing. Still, oncologists and public health researchers agree it’s time to examine Iowa’s top industry more closely to see how it might play a role.

Dr Richard Deming is a Des Moines oncologist who participated in The Gazette’s Iowa Ideas conference last fall. He said, “We’re not yet at the point where we can say what every single chemical that ultimately gets into our water supply (or) onto our skin causes, but when you look at the amount of ag chemicals Iowans are exposed to compared to other states, I suspect that we’ll find that might also be one of the contributing factors.”

Many studies are underway in Iowa, including what happens when nitrates are in drinking water. Farmers are also the focus of a 30-year health study. Rob Faux ran a small-scale vegetable farm and was raising poultry full-time. He didn’t use pesticides, but his neighbors with traditional corn and soybean farms did.

In 2020, doctors found a cancerous tumor in his kidney. They removed the kidney, and he has been healthy since. But he thinks chemical exposures, including an incident in 2012 when he got doused by a crop duster, played a role.

“I got this cancer because there was a confluence of events,” he said. “Some of it might be genetic. Some of it situational. Some of it might be what I ate or how I live. It might be exposure to pesticides. Who knows which of those things provided the tipping point?”

Faux has been working since 2020 with the Pesticide Action Network, an international group critical of modern pesticide practices.

Farmers have a lower overall rate of cancer, according to a 20-year follow-up of Iowa and North Carolina farmers enrolled in the Agricultural Health Study. But for some types of cancer—prostate, lip, acute myeloid leukemia, thyroid, testicular, and peritoneal—farmers in the study had higher rates than the general public.

The newly formed Task Force within the Iowa Cancer Consortium also studies environmental links.

People agree that the fight against cancer requires a multi-pronged approach. The Iowa Cancer Plan emphasizes the importance of increasing awareness about environmental carcinogens and promoting research into their links to cancer. Also, it encourages healthy lifestyles, proper waste management, and air and water pollution reduction. And finally early cancer detection through screenings to improve survival rates.

Finally, the Iowa City school board will decide the future of Hills Elementary School on Tuesday. District officials recommended closing Hills at the end of this year.

But families of children in the school — past, present and future — are asking the school board to keep Hills Elementary open. It is the only school in the town of about 1,000 residents and serves a large immigrant population.

Hills Elementary is one of the most diverse schools in the Iowa City Community School District. About 36 percent of students at Hills are Hispanic or Latino and more than 13 percent are Black, according to U.S. News & World Report. About 70 percent of students at Hills are economically disadvantaged.

Mayte Flores was excited about sending her daughter to kindergarten next year at Hills. She says the children embraced the diversity at Hills. She says, “It’s really hard for them being between two different cultures because it’s another world outside your house. They’re a part of two different worlds.

Residents within the Hills attendance boundary—including Hills Mayor Tim Kemp—are frustrated that Iowa City school officials have not consulted them about the school's potential closure.

Monday’s weather: Rain with thunderstorms possible after 11 am. High near 59. Monday night will have rain and possibly a thunderstorm between 2-5 am. Tuesday has rain before 5 pm with a chance of rain and snow later. High near 51.

You can find a link to each of the stories featured in today’s episode in the episode’s description or at thegazette dot com.

Thank you for listening to The Gazette’s Daily News Podcast. I’m Becky Lutgen Gardner.