United States: In an attempt to uncover details of how cancers in Iowa have increased, researchers have zeroed in on areas of interest that would make the state the epicenter of new cases in America.
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The state is witnessing the most rapidly increasing first-year cancer incidence and ranks second for overall cancer incidence in the country for two years consecutively.
This trend puzzled many Midwest residents and officials because other nearby states that had similar populaces, diets and agricultural habits experienced a decreased cancer rate, as Daily Mail reported.
Causes cited by health experts
However, the officials are now attributing the surge to this new environmental factor that has not been seen before.
Part of it could be geographic; for instance, there are reports of radioactive gas leeching from the Earth due to some geologic shifts that occurred at the end of the last ice age.
Radon is a colorless, odorless, and naturally occurring radioactive noble gas produced from the decay of radium and found in the carcasses of weathered granitic rock, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and is now known to cause lung cancers in those who do not smoke.
Approximately one thousand nine hundred years back, Iowa and other areas of the Midwest were filled with a colossal glacier that started to break down that embedded rock bed. Today, it can be worn down enough in specific areas to seep into the soil and penetrate into homeowners’ residences, as Daily Mail reported.
Potential reasons for cancer hike as per experts
Experts have now identified five potential factors why lung, breast, prostate, and skin cancers are all rising at high rates across the Hawkeye state: undesirable dietary habits, lack of exercise, radon exposure, tobacco and alcohol consumption, farming activities, and alcohol consumption, respectively.
This probably explains why the language used above describes this cancer crisis as the interacting functions of these five factors, Mary Charlton, the director of Iowa Cancer Registry and a professor in the University of Iowa College of Public Health Department of Epidemiology disclosed to the Telegraph Herald.
According to Dr Charlton, “The unfortunate, unsatisfying answer I have for everybody is, it’s not one thing,” and “It can’t be. We’re high in so many different types of cancer, and they all have different patterns, different geography patterns, different populations.”