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OUT OF HARM’S WAY: It is common for children on the farm to want to help out, even at a young age. Assigning chores that are suitable for their age is an important step to keeping them safe. Teaching children and caregivers about farm hazards can help reduce chance of injury or death.
Quite often the smallest moving parts on a farm get overlooked, and that oversight can prove to be the most disastrous when it comes to children.
Agriculture has long been considered one of the most dangerous workplaces in the U.S., and there are some sobering statistics about the littlest farm hands:
The age-adjusted cancer mortality rate for Black people in Iowa is more than 25% greater than it is for white Iowans.
Report co-author Mary Charlton, professor of epidemiology in the University of Iowa College of Public Health, says the numbers are adjusted for age, Black Iowans are more apt to get cancer when they’re younger, whereas white Iowans are more likely to get it when they’re older.
“When examining rates by age at diagnosis, we found that in the 60- to 69-year-old age group the Black population had an age-adjusted new case rate that was 33% higher than the white population. The cancer incidence rates became more similar in the older age groups. This shows how cancer impacts the Black population in Iowa at younger ages.”
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Iowa’s Black population has the highest mortality rate in almost every major cause of death, including cancer, when compared to other racial and ethnic groups.
Cancer is also striking Black Iowans at a younger age, with Black Iowans experiencing the highest cancer incidence rate of all racial and ethnic groups between 50 and 79 years old.
Concerns over racial and ethnic disparities in cancer are the focus of the 2021 Cancer in Iowa report, issued by the Iowa Cancer Registry earlier this week. On this episode of
River to River, host Ben Kieffer talks with experts about these newly reported findings. Advocates Cathy Ketton and ShanQuiesha Robinson also join the program to discuss efforts to support women of color experiencing breast cancer in the Cedar Valley through their organization, Splash of Color Breast Cancer Support Group.