Des Moines, IA — Today, for the second year in a row, the Iowa Senate passed Bayer’s Cancer Gag Act (SF 394) by a vote of 26-21, a tighter margin than last year’s vote of 30-19. Republicans Kevin Alons, Doug Campbell, Sandy Salmon, Dave Sires, Jeff Taylor, and Cherielynn Westrich broke with party lines to oppose the dangerous legislation, which would shield pesticide corporations from health related lawsuits. The widely opposed bill now heads to the Iowa House where it will need a Committee vote to advance.

Recent polling from the Iowa Association for Justice found that 89% of Iowa voters oppose pesticide immunity legislation, including 87% of Republican respondents. In February, more than 150 people rallied in the Capitol against the legislation. 

In response, Food & Water Watch Iowa Organizer Jennifer Breon issued the following statement:

“Today, the Iowa Senate voted to put corporations above struggling Iowans. All eyes now turn to the House, where a handful of Representatives stand between sick Iowans and the polluting pesticide industry. Iowa’s fast rising cancer rates have touched so many families — we implore Iowa Representatives to stand up to Bayer and stop their dangerous Cancer Gag Act.”

Iowa has the fastest rising cancer rate in the country and the second highest prevalence of cancer nationwide — over 1 in 20 people in Iowa have at one point received a cancer diagnosis. The Iowa Cancer Registry predicts 21,200 new invasive cancer diagnoses and 6,300 cancer-related deaths this year.

Bayer’s push to limit liability comes as the corporation has spent over $11 billion settling more than 100,000 cancer lawsuits related to their Roundup product, whose active ingredient glyphosate is under investigation as a possible carcinogen. Roundup is widely used in Iowa: In any given year, more than half the state is covered in the pesticide.