Smoking is a manner in which tobacco substance is burned and the resulting smoke breathed in to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream. A cigarette is a small cylindrical thing composed of finely cut tobacco leaves rolled in thin paper for smoking.
A new study by the American Cancer Society, located in Atlanta, Georgia, results in cigarette smoking as the cause of around 30 percent of cancer deaths in the United States. The said study, which was published online in JAMA Internal Medicine, included American adults with ages 35 years above.
The researchers found out and estimated that at least 167,133 cancer deaths in 2014 can be associated with cigarette smoking. Based on the recorded cases, the mortality rate is higher in men with an average of 30 percent across all states except in Utah. There is a smaller proportion of women, which posted an average death rate of 20 percent only.
The study indicated that the states Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, West Virginia and Kentucky as disproportionately affected. Each of these cases nearly has 40 percent smoking-related cancer deaths. Also, in the top 10 worst states, nine of them are from the Southern area, which aided the researchers to conclude that the crisis seems particularly critical in the said region.
According to The Advocate, nine of 14 states with the least comprehensive smoke-free indoor air policies are in the South. The average cigarette excise tax in major tobacco states, mostly in the South, is 49 cents, compared with $1.80 elsewhere. The tobacco industry heavily influences these policies and most of the U.S. tobacco crop is grown in the South, the researchers said. The region also has relatively high levels of poverty, which is also linked with smoking.
Even not in the Southern area, or in the US, more and more people are smoking the may lead to cause of cancer deaths. According to the World Health Organization, the tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing around 6 million people a year.
