Black Hawk County — Waterloo and Cedar Falls — holds the John Deere Waterloo tractor works and the Rath meatpacking plant, foundry-and-assembly operations that reportedly relied on asbestos-containing insulation and materials for generations of workers.
Iowa allows two years from a mesothelioma or asbestos-cancer diagnosis to file a personal-injury or wrongful-death claim (Iowa Code § 614.1(2)), with the clock running from diagnosis under the discovery rule of Iowa’s asbestos-claims act (Chapter 686B). Iowa also requires a sworn medical affidavit to be filed with the complaint (§ 686B.3). Cases are filed in the county District Court of proper venue; Iowa has no statewide asbestos MDL.