Cancer & the Agchurian Candidate
Note: an unnamed colleague assisted with this piece.
"We benefit by recognizing that, if we're going to change society, we cannot depend on the people in power." Historian Howard Zinn, 1922-2010
If you are one of the 600,000 Iowans that regularly drank water supplied by Des Moines Water Works in 2024, that water contained more than 3 mg/L nitrate-nitrogen on 202 of 366 days.
More than 5 mg/L? 119 days.
More than 8 mg/L? 32 days.
More than 10 mg/L? 1 day.
More fun facts for you Polk Countians: drinking water above 5 mg/L for 5 years is associated with an enhanced risk of thyroid cancer (1), an increased rate of bladder cancer in postmenopausal women (2) and double the risk of giving birth to a child with spina bifida (3). Drinking water over 4 mg/L nitrate: statistically significant increased rate of colorectal cancer (4). Over 3 mg/L: double the risk of ovarian cancer (5).
Think about it, on almost 3 out of every 5 calendar days, Des Moines drinking water exceeds 3 mg/L nitrate, a level that doubles the risk for ovarian cancer. Some years you may never drink a drop of water below 5 mg/L nitrate in metropolitan Des Moines.
What if you live in Cedar Rapids or Marion? You and about 200,000 of your fellow Iowans enjoyed nitrate above 8 mg/L in your morning coffee, if made with CR tap water, for nearly two months in 2024—the highest levels in at least 10 years. The good doctors at Iowa Farm Bureau say they hope it helped with your angina, if that’s a problem for you. They’re well-known for their deadside manner and if need be, will comfort you and your tumor with stories about how drinking fertilizer-laced water and eating beets is pretty much the same thing. Here's a shocker: they’re against EPA reevaluating the 10 mg/L maximum allowed amount of nitrate in municipal drinking water.
How about if you live in a small city like Manchester, or Boone, or Ottumwa, or Sioux Center? You also regularly drink water above 5 mg/L nitrate. Cedar Falls? An eye-popping 9.6 mg/L in 2023. Downriver a few miles in Waterloo—as high as 7.5 mg/L. Those trendy Iowa Citians often fill their fancy metal water bottles with tap H2O above 5 mg/L nitrate.
What about Iowa private wells? At least 6600 of them have nitrate above 10 mg/L.
Are you are one of the 927,000 Iowans that voted for Donald Trump two months ago? Congratulations, you just voted for a guy that suspended National Institute of Health (NIH) grant review panels. This delays the release of the $47 billion NIH budget including the $7 billion designated for the National Cancer Institute. As a result, NCI has paused clinical trials for people that are suffering from cancer RIGHT NOW.
Serious question for Iowa Republicans: How is solving the 2nd highest cancer rate in the country consistent with defunding our public health and research infrastructure? At times it really does seem like Republicans just want the infirm to die.
Meanwhile governor Kim Reynolds, who briefly abandoned her soul mate Trump for what turned out to be an unvirile Ron DeSantis, is back in baby’s arms. Whooda thunk it takes more than cowboy boots to make a relationship work. On the water quality front, Reynolds’ henchwomen Brenna Bird (Attorney General) and Kayla Lyon (DNR Director), are actively trying to remove citizens’ rights to sue under the Clean Water Act (Bird) and convince EPA that Des Moines and Cedar Rapids aren’t using polluted rivers for their drinking water (Lyon).
At this point you might be thinking cancer and polluted water are bad, but what an opportunity for Iowa Democrats. If you are thinking that, just settle down and take a seat, buddy.
Following Reynolds’ Condition of the State Address, Iowa Democratic Party Chair (and self-identified Iowa farmer) Rita Hart issued a response statement that ignored cancer, water quality and pollution in general, but, thank god, mentioned a possible future downturn in the farm economy.
Not long after, Golden Boy Democrat and Great Lite Hope Rob Sand reported he’s raised $8.4 million for what everybody expects to be a run at Governor Ratched. Surprise! 7 million of that haul was from his wife and her agribusiness giant family, the Lauridsens. Turns out the man of $10 suits is phonier than a $3 bill. Fun facts: the grandfather of Sand’s wife was one of the founders of meat industry giant Iowa Beef Processors (later IBP) and Rob’s father-in-law oversees the Lauridsen Group (LGI), a collection of food and agribusiness companies. No wonder Rob loves flipping pork burgers at the Iowa State Fair! He’s the Agchurian Candidate!
With Sand’s candidacy now listing like his father-in-law’s $10 million yacht, his good buddy and my own state senator Zach Wahls came to the rescue to point out that Rob reported no special interest money donations in his campaign. Upon reading that one recent morning, I about vomited my homegrown/homemade grits and thought about suggesting to Zach that when your in laws have owned a $10 million boat and a $77 million house (at the time the most expensive in Colorado) they ARE indeed special. Oh yeah. And having interests in the livestock industry makes them value added special in a place like Iowa.
As Iowa City podcaster Justin Comer points out: doesn’t it make your head tilt like a curious dog when Democratic Party power brokers grease the skids for a skateboarding lightweight funded by a Republican Oligarch? Or is Sand really the best the Ds have? Shudder at the thought.
I’ve come to a regrettable conclusion here and that is the people driving policy in the Iowa Democratic Party are NEVER going to care about either your water or your cancer, and they’re controlled by Big Ag every bit as much as Republicans, probably even more. Zach Wahls is an especially curious character to me. Like a buried acorn in the People’s Republic of Johnson County, the Big Ag cash hog still manages to find him. But not one word about Trump’s NIH moves (as far as I know) from this Iowa City boy who grew up in the shadows of Kinnick Stadium. Is Wahls and the rest of the Democratic power structure not aware of how much money NIH sends to the University of Iowa and its hospital? In 2024, that was $190 million, only $28 million less than what the State of Iowa allocated to the university. Is Wahls also not aware that many of his constituents work there and are paid through NIH research grants?? Maybe if it was a corn ethanol plant on the west side of campus instead of a hospital and research laboratories, he might care. But, I suppose he and other Iowa Democrats have their reason$ for avoiding the cancer discussion.
Will anybody in Iowa politics step up and recognize that addressing quality of life issues like clean water and avoidable disease is fertile ground? Both nature and politics abhor a vacuum and the example of RFK Jr. is illustrative. Despite personal baggage smellier than a manure lagoon and some hair-brained (and destructive) ideas about vaccines and other conspiracies, the fact is the guy is viewed as credible on food and ag issues by many in both agriculture and the public. Such is the thirst for something different and better. Just think what an honest and insightful and courageous politician could do with these issues.
Cited resources
Ward, M.H., Kilfoy, B.A., Weyer, P.J., Anderson, K.E., Folsom, A.R. and Cerhan, J.R., 2010. Nitrate intake and the risk of thyroid cancer and thyroid disease. Epidemiology, 21(3), pp.389-395.
Jones, R.R., Weyer, P.J., DellaValle, C.T., Inoue-Choi, M., Anderson, K.E., Cantor, K.P., Krasner, S., Robien, K., Freeman, L.E.B., Silverman, D.T. and Ward, M.H., 2016. Nitrate from drinking water and diet and bladder cancer among postmenopausal women in Iowa. Environmental health perspectives, 124(11), pp.1751-1758.
Brender, J.D., Weyer, P.J., Romitti, P.A., Mohanty, B.P., Shinde, M.U., Vuong, A.M., Sharkey, J.R., Dwivedi, D., Horel, S.A., Kantamneni, J. and Huber Jr, J.C., 2013. Prenatal nitrate intake from drinking water and selected birth defects in offspring of participants in the national birth defects prevention study. Environmental health perspectives, 121(9), pp.1083-1089.
Schullehner, J., Hansen, B., Thygesen, M., Pedersen, C.B. and Sigsgaard, T., 2018. Nitrate in drinking water and colorectal cancer risk: A nationwide population‐based cohort study. International journal of cancer, 143(1), pp.73-79.
Inoue‐Choi, M., Jones, R.R., Anderson, K.E., Cantor, K.P., Cerhan, J.R., Krasner, S., Robien, K., Weyer, P.J. and Ward, M.H., 2015. Nitrate and nitrite ingestion and risk of ovarian cancer among postmenopausal women in Iowa. International Journal of Cancer, 137(1), pp.173-182.
I started a clinical trial two weeks ago at the U of I. Not sure if it’s the meds or the news that’s affecting my blood pressure but I’m definitely curious to talk to my Onc tomorrow.
As to the current Dems, always amazed at their “surveys” sent as a excuse to troll for donations, no discussions about Iowas water, DNR, and seemingly nonchalant eye fluttering over the fiasco we call nursing homes.
I'm one of those who spent more than an hour on the phone with Rob for one of his fundraising calls and we gave, only because once again, better of two evils. Nothing will change in Iowa ag so long as it owns both parties. Thank you Chris, for doing what you do.