" Obesity and physical activity cause a lot of cancers , almost as many as smoking ," said Dr . Richard Deming , medical director at MercyOne Cancer Center . " And Iowa doesn ' t fare very well when it comes to obesity ."
On top of those risk factors , doctors say environmental factors play a role as well . While 90 % of lung cancer can be attributed to smoking , doctors say radon is also a key causation factor .
" In Iowa , we have a really high radon exposure ," Charlton said . Doctors are also carefully looking at agricultural impacts on some types of cancer .
" Another possibility and again , just speculation , is we live in a part of the country where there are lots of ag chemicals that work their way through the fields and into the rivers and the water ," Deming said . " There ' s research being done on [ if ] some of these possibly get into drinking water . We look at nitrates and we look at other things ."
" We spray more glyphosate on crops than any other state except Illinois ," Nish adds . " Glyphosate is Roundup ... it ' s touted as being non-toxic to humans . But that just frankly , isn ' t true ." While Iowa has a high rate of cancer , doctors say the good news is the number of people dying from the disease is decreasing .
They encourage Iowans to take steps to stay healthy , and keep up to date on preventative screenings and tests .
Iowa State Cancer Report : https :// shri . public‐health . uiowa . edu / wp‐content / uploads / 2023 / 02 / cancer‐in‐iowa‐2023 . pdf