[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Across Iowa, people have known for a long time what data is only now beginning to confirm — cancer incidence in the state is outstandingly high.
Iowa became the focus of national attention earlier this year when data showed it had the fastest growing rate of new cancers of any state in America.
That's more than the Rust Belt states, where lifelong factory work, smoking rates and lack of healthcare puts locals at a higher risk for developing the disease. And more than southern states where rates of obesity, alcohol use and poverty make them more prone to the disease.
A complex web of factors is thought to be at play - Iowa is a farming powerhouse and uses more potentially carcinogenic pesticides than anywhere else. It's also sitting on a hotbed of radioactive gas, called radon, which can leech into homes undetected and cause lung cancer.
Residents are unwilling to accept being sickened by their home and are demanding state leaders do something about the crisis. |