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News Brief

April 10, 2025

Iowa Cancer Gag Act

A bill that would have given pesticide companies legal immunity from health problems caused by their products didn't make it through the legislature this year in Iowa. A recent poll from the Iowa Association for Justice found 89 percent of Iowans oppose giving pesticide companies legal immunity, including 87 percent of Republicans. Jennifer Breon, who works in Iowa with the group Food & Water Watch, says the issue is about human health, which most Iowa lawmakers understand.

"Look our legislators are Iowans as well, some of them are farmers and some of them have probably used these products and have family members who have cancer or other health issues and they have to wonder, whats causing this?", says Breon. 

Registration records show the pharmaceutical company Bayer has four lobbyists in Iowa alone, a state where several companies often pool resources to hire just one.
More than 30 groups representing Iowans wrote a letter to House leaders calling on lawmakers to oppose the so-called 'Cancer Gag Act.' Breon says putting it on hold, at least for this year, had broad public support even outside the Statehouse in Des Moines.

"If you've seen the advertising all around Iowa on billboards and social media, this bill is backed by the industry and by Bayer in particular.", says Breon. 

While there is some debate about which pesticides are carcinogenic, it's been well documented that they run off into groundwater, that Iowa has the second highest cancer rate in the nation, and that new cases are growing more quickly than in any other state.