The mysterious rise of cancer among young adults in the Corn Belt
In Iowa, young cancer patients are making the small state a bellwether of a generational reckoning.WINTERSET, Iowa Mackenzie Drydens happiest childhood memories are of running barefoot through the sunlit corn fields of her hometown. But when she was diagnosed with cancer 2½ years ago at 18 years old, a disturbing thought began to take hold.
Could something in the land she loved have made her sick?
Dryden went to social media for answers, and stumbled upon a deeper mystery: Within just two years, four other recent graduates from her high school home to only 500 students had also been diagnosed with advanced cancers.
Its kind of insane this is happening, the college senior said in an interview.
Drydens questioning taps into an unsettling shift in cancer diagnoses in America, with rates for young adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s trending up even as overall cancer rates decline and with geography appearing to be a key characteristic in who falls ill young.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/10/27/young-cancer-iowa/
Bernardo de La Paz
(60,155 posts)womanofthehills
(10,579 posts)Your average corn farmer according to AI might use atrazine and acetoclor pre -plant and glyphosate and mesitrone after emergence and glyphosate again for uniform drying just before harvest.
Who even knows how all these toxins interact when combined.Atrazine is legal in US for corn crop but banned in UK.
There are herbicide studies done using fluorescent tracers simulating herbicides brought into farmers homes on clothing & shoes. Herbicides can then contaminate rugs, furniture etc. and the whole family can be continually exposed.
biophile
(994 posts)gab13by13
(30,382 posts)but European countries do something about it.
biophile
(994 posts)womanofthehills
(10,579 posts)But is banned in UK.
TheFarseer
(9,706 posts)Why isnt Trump releasing the Epstein files. OF COURSE is Roundup and all the other chemicals we are pouring all over the crops. Ive been saying this for 20 years!
LymphocyteLover
(8,983 posts)PoindexterOglethorpe
(28,272 posts)given the herbicides and pesticides and who knows what else is sprayed all over those crops.
Skittles
(168,397 posts)and the cancers weren't generally in teenagers
PoindexterOglethorpe
(28,272 posts)to be found in teens. A huge number of environmental things are out there, some of which have changed over time. The world is a dangerous place.
hatrack
(63,886 posts)Heading out for breakfast one morning, there was a sign outside the bathrooms that patrons should not drink the tap water. In particular, they should not use the tap water for formula for infants, since heavy nitrate concentrations in the water produced blue baby syndrome . .
Or, to be more specific:
EDIT
Methemoglobinemia can be acquired or congenital. It occurs when the iron in hemoglobin is oxidized from Fe2+ to Fe3+, leading to poor binding of oxygen. Additionally, the oxygen that is already bound is held more tightly to the hemoglobin due to a higher affinity, resulting in less oxygen delivery. A methemoglobin level > 1.5 g/dL causes cyanosis. The most common congenital cause is a deficiency in the enzyme cytochrome b5 reductase which reduces methemoglobin in the blood.[22]
However, in infants the most common cause of methemoglobinemia is acquired through the ingestion of nitrates (NO−3) through well water or foods. Nitrites (NO−2) produced by the microbial reduction of nitrate (directly in the drinkwater, or after ingestion by the infant, in his digestive system) are more powerful oxidizers than nitrates and are the chemical agent really responsible of the oxidation of Fe2+ into Fe3+ in the tetrapyrrole heme of hemoglobin.
Infants younger than 4 months are at greater risk given that they drink more water per body weight, they have a lower NADH- cytochrome b5 reductase activity, and they have a higher level of fetal hemoglobin which converts more easily to methemoglobin. Additionally, infants are at an increased risk after an episode of gastroenteritis due to the production of nitrites by bacteria.[22] The sources of nitrate can include fertilizers used in agricultural lands, waste dumps or pit latrines.[23] For example, nitrate levels are subject to monitoring to comply with drinking water quality standards in the United States and other countries.[24][25] The link between blue baby syndrome and nitrates in drinking water is widely accepted, but as of 2006 some studies indicated that other contaminants or dietary nitrate sources, might also play a role in the syndrome.[26][27][28]
EDIT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_baby_syndrome