Des Moines County — Burlington — holds the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant at Middletown, one of the nation’s principal munitions works, and the CNH (Case) farm-equipment plant, high-heat manufacturing that reportedly relied on asbestos-containing insulation and materials throughout its operating life.
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.