Iowa’s rising cancer rates feature in governor’s race

Iowa’s cancer rates are rising faster than any other U.S. state, and it’s been a hot topic in Iowa’s gubernatorial campaigns.

Republican candidate Zach Lahn and Democrat candidate Rob Sand each are campaigning to put Iowans’ health first and oppose “big agriculture.” Lahn’s campaign has garnered support from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy thanks to his “Make Iowa Healthy Again” mission.

“Iowa has the fastest growing cancer rate in the world,” Lahn said during his primary election victory speech in June. “We all know something is terribly wrong but too many politicians from Washington, D.C., to Des Moines have had their heads stuck in the sand while big ag and big pharma printed money. This will not go on when I’m governor.”

Iowa’s cancer rate is 498 people per 100,000, which is 10% higher than the national rate. Iowans’ concerns for water quality and pesticides used for farming prompted the Iowa Environmental Council’s “Environmental risk factors and Iowa’s cancer crisis” report. This report found that “forever chemicals” (PFAS) and nitrates from farmland runoff are tainting the drinking water.

The report encourages politicians and lawmakers to get Iowa’s water tested for carcinogens and to opt in to the EPA’s Clean Water Act.

Sand announced his “A Healthier Iowa for All” plan in April. His campaign said in a statement to Heartlander News that this is a “multi-faceted problem that will take a multi-faceted approach to addressing.” His plan includes denying immunity for chemical companies sickening Iowans, investing in water quality monitors and radon testing, establishing a Cabinet-level Cancer Task Force, and reversing the privatization of Medicaid.

” We can’t keep going down this path,” Sand said.

Lahn is MAHA-backed and a farmer himself. His campaign lists “solving the cancer crisis” on X as his priority and has framed this issue in moral terms.

“Having clean water is a pro-life issue,” Lahn said on the campaign trail in May. “Cutting our cancer rates down is a pro-life issue.”

Heartlander News also reached out to Lahn for comment.

Neither candidate has made explicit statements about SF 394, a bill currently stuck in the Iowa House of Representatives that seeks to protect fertilizer and weedkiller manufacturers against lawsuits claiming their products don’t sufficiently warn of health complications that could come from product use. The bill died last term after narrowly passing the Iowa Senate.