Iowa Has the Fastest-Growing Cancer Rates in the Nation

DES MOINES – What in the name of Iowa cancer rates is Mariannette Miller-Meeks doing? She has co-sponsored a bill that would legalize the commercial and industrial use of the cancer-causing chemical Trichloroethylene (TCE). The chemical causes liver cancer, among other illnesses, and has a pattern of seeping into and contaminating water supplies. People can be exposed by drinking it, inhaling it, even absorbing it through the skin.

Iowa has the second-highest rate of new cancers in the United States. It’s estimated that 21,200 Iowans will be diagnosed with cancer in 2025. Miller-Meeks should be fighting this tragedy. Instead, she’s putting her ideology ahead of Iowa families and causing her constituents more hardship.

“There are over a dozen hazardous waste sites around Iowa contaminated by TCE,” said IDP spokesperson Paige Godden. “The EPA’s Superfund program has been working to remove the chemical from the soil and water in these areas so that Iowans aren’t poisoned. What in the world does Miller-Meeks gain by allowing this dangerous substance to be used in our state again? Why is she willing to spread cancer among the people she claims to care about?”