The American Cancer Society analyzed health surveys and government data on smoking and deaths from about twelve smoking-linked cancers - lung, throat, stomach, liver, colon, pancreas and kidney cancers, including leukemia.
"The human costs of cigarette smoking are high in all states, regardless of ranking," researchers said. The results of the research was released Monday.
The authors released the following estimates:
- Approximately 40 million Americans are smokers.
- There were 167,133 cancer deaths linked to smoking in the U.S. in 2014
- For men, close to 40 percent of deaths in Arkansas are attributed to smoking; 38.5 percent in Tennessee and Louisiana; 38.2 percent in Kentucky and West Virginia.
- Majority of the 10 states with the highest rate of smoking-related deaths are from the south, while the states with the lowest rating are either from the north or west regions.
- Kentucky had the highest rating among women at 29 percent.
"Increasing tobacco control funding, implementing innovative new strategies, and strengthening tobacco control policies and programs, federally and in all states and localities, might further increase smoking cessation, decrease initiation and reduce the future burden of smoking-related cancers," the authors of the study said.
Dr. Hilary Tindle of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, a tobacco researcher and internal medicine specialist but who is not part of the study noted that smoking is a social norm for people in the Southern states. Also, most of the tobacco crops in the US are grown in the South.
The region has a high level of poverty, a reason which is also linked to smoking. She also said that the results of the study conducted by the American Cancer Society show a need for stricter tobacco control and policies. She concluded that all doctors should warn their patients about the risks of smoking and to strongly advise smokers to quit.
