Policy experts, healthcare providers and farmers from across the state gathered at Raccoon River Park in West Des Moines Thursday to announce a new campaign: Protect Water Prevent Cancer.
Led by the Iowa Environmental Council (IEC), the campaign includes state-level policy recommendations, along with guidance for contacting lawmakers and advocating for cleaner water and better protection from known carcinogens.
Protect Water Prevent Cancer follows nearly two years of listening sessions the IEC and its partners organized around the state and a report released in March reviewing the latest science on environmental risk factors contributing to Iowa’s outlier cancer statistics.
Iowa has the second highest rate of cancer in the U.S. and is one of three states with rising rates.
Elevated environmental risk factors in the report include high levels of radon gas, pesticides, PFAS — known as “forever chemicals” — and nitrate pollution in many of Iowa’s sources of drinking water.
“We listened to Iowans. We followed the science, and now we're ready for action,” said Sarah Green, IEC’s executive director. “This campaign brings together Iowans from across the state to achieve something that we all want and deserve, but we are not getting from our decision makers and special interests in our state.”
IEC has partnered with The Harkin Institute, Iowa Farmers Union, Environmental Law and Policy Center, Nishnabotna Water Defenders and Jefferson County Farmers and Neighbors on the Protect Water Prevent Cancer campaign.
The coalition’s goal is cleaner water and lower cancer rates, which Green said is a bipartisan issue.
New results from a survey commissioned by the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future found 60% of 800 likely Iowa voters chose drinking water quality and the environment as one of their top five most important issues.
“A quarter say there is little to no chance that they would support a candidate who does not prioritize water quality,” Green added.
The survey also found a majority of Iowa voters support the state's agricultural industry. But large-scale and industrial farming operations received 76% unfavorable ratings, while small and medium-sized independent farms received 90% favorability.
Matt Russell, executive director of the Iowa Farmers Union, said independent family farmers and ranchers “are the state’s best available path” to solving Iowa’s water quality challenges.
“Accepting the fact that agricultural production is the leading cause of our degraded water might be a threat to some in the agriculture industry, but the Iowa Farmers Union disagrees,” Russell said, explaining the organization supports nature-based solutions.
These solutions include growing small grains, reducing tillage, integrating livestock and having living roots in the soil year-round through cover crops and perennial vegetation.
“Unfortunately, Iowa farmers are forced to make rational decisions about soil health, water quality, conservation and profitability in an irrational agricultural system,” Russell said. “Major updates to supporting farm profitability and better environmental outcomes need to happen within Iowa's agriculture.”
Recommendations in the report from the IEC and The Harkin Institute include focusing economic development programs on the development of new markets for local food. Another is the creation of a statewide working group to develop more incentives for diversified cropping and animal systems and the conservation of vulnerable lands.
Jon Bakehouse, a farmer in southwest Iowa near the town of Hastings, said separating environmental health and human health is a false narrative.
Over the last decade, he said his family has reduced their reliance on herbicides by incorporating cover crops and roller crimping. They’re working with Practical Farmers of Iowa to figure out the optimal amount of fertilizer to apply, and they’ve installed prairie strips, which help prevent erosion and nutrient runoff.
But Bakehouse wonders about the contaminants he may have been exposed to as a child of the '80s who loved exploring the Nishnabotna River near his family’s farm.
In 2024, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which caused fluid to pool around his heart. Bakehouse described heart rates up to 220 beats per minute and below 30 bpm, multiple chest procedures and “a lot of time in the ICU.”
“I hesitate to draw a straight line from the water quality of the Nishnabotna to my diagnosis. However, I am certain it is part of the equation,” Bakehouse said.
Jodi Reese cofounded the Nishnabotna Water Defenders after a massive fertilizer spill in 2024 killed an estimated 750,000 fish. She has helped train more than 40 volunteers to test for nitrate and other pollutants in local waterways.
Reese also has two decades of experience in healthcare.
“As a nurse, I've been at the bedside of countless people with cancer,” Reese said. “Cancer is a thief. It robs a person of their time, their money, their autonomy and even their body parts. In its wake, suffering.”
She drew comparisons between the new Protect Water Prevent Cancer campaign and the fight against Big Tobacco decades ago, pointing to research estimating nearly 4 million lung cancer deaths prevented since 1970.
“Legislation was created that promoted and prioritized the health of the people over a powerful, harmful industry,” Reese said. “Why can't we do the same in Iowa?
Isaiah Petersen, a chiropractor in Ankeny and founder of a home water filtration company, said he was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma at age 22 and has been cancer-free since treatments in 2020.
But Petersen said he’s one of three people from his high school graduating class of 33 students in northwest Iowa who were diagnosed before their 10-year reunion. He also listed relatives whose lives he said were cut short by cancer.
“We have lost the sense of uniqueness that cancer brings, and the fact that everyone at the drop of a hat can name a half-dozen or dozen people in their circle that have had cancer or passed away from cancer is not normal,” Petersen said.
He said Iowa is at an inflection point.
“I fear that if we don't begin making changes at this moment, with all the information and momentum that we have presently, it may never happen,” Petersen said.
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The Iowa Environmental Council and The Harkin Institute are sponsors of Iowa Public Radio.
