from American Cancer Society
There are still an estimated forty million adult smokers in the United States and the journal JAMA Internal Medicine says smoking remains the largest preventable cause of death from cancer and other diseases. Between one-quarter and one-third of all cancer deaths are linked to smoking, but until now there has been no state-by-state estimate. Researchers at the American Cancer Society say cancer deaths from smoking are highest in the South—nearly forty percent of cancer deaths in men. Utah had the lowest percentage of cancer deaths from smoking for both men and women, while Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Kentucky and West Virginia had the highest. The study calls for new strategies to reduce the future burden of smoking-related cancers.