- In Time for Holidays: More Gloom and Doom on Economy
- Turkey Day 101: How Well Do You Know Your Bird?
- US Home Prices Up 5th Month, 2nd Straight Quarter
- Holiday Guide to This Season's Smartphones
- Six Ways to Boost Your Income in a Big Way
- Buyers Look for Bargains at Luxury Condo Auction
- Ron Paul's Plan to Audit Fed a 'Serious Attack': Mishkin
- GM's Agreement to Sell Saab Unit Falls Apart
- Strong Banks, Weak Credit: Treasury Rethinks TARP
- NBA D-League On The Rise
- 3D's Tipping Point and Your Living Room
- On Twitter, Beware False Prophets
- My 2010 Home Price Outlook: UBS Analyst
- Why Are Options Piling into Dollar Tree?
- Novartis 'Cells' Its Flu Vaccine Technology
- Silicon Valley and Hollywood Now Fast Friends
- Markets Can Rise 5-10% in the Near-Term: Strategist
- Busch: The Debt-Interest Rate Paradox
- Wash. 2-year colleges report record enrollment
- GE Oil & Gas installs LNG terminal in Adriatic
- Playboy to outsource business functions
- Tenneco raises $187M in public offering
- Fitch predicts recovery for auto suppliers
- Moody's lowers CVS outlook on Caremark struggles
- Earnings Preview: Deere 4th-quarter results
- Moody's upgrades Rent-A-Center debt
- Verizon opposes Sprint's "Most Dependable" claim
Text Size 
ATLANTA - Kentucky and West Virginia — where people traditionally smoke the most — have the highest death rates from smoking, a new federal study has found. Rounding out the 10 states with the highest average annual smoking death rates were Nevada, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, Indiana and Missouri.
The lowest death rates were in Utah and Hawaii, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.
The smoking death rate in Kentucky was about 371 deaths out of every 100,000 adults age 35 and older. In West Virginia, the smoking death rate was about 344 deaths out of every 100,000 adults.
That was nearly one-and-a-half times higher than the national median of 263 per 100,000. And it was nearly three times the rate for Utah, which was 138 per 100,000.
The smoking death rates were calculated using death certificate data from the years 2000 through 2004, focusing on lung cancer and 18 other diseases caused by cigarette smoking.
The rates track pretty closely with the adult smoking rates in each state. Kentucky and West Virginia had the highest smoking rates in 2004 as well.
But obesity and other problems that trigger heart disease are also factors. Smoking, added to those problems, "is like gasoline on the fire," said Terry Pechacek, a CDC senior scientist for tobacco-related issues.
For every state, the annual number of smoking deaths was higher among males than females. However, rates declined in men in 49 states since the late 1990s, but declined in women in only 32 states.
The report is published this week in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Print
Email
- Remember when auto shows were major events where new models could generate buzz?
- A diet high in fat and sugar might actually be good for your portfolio.
- A new McDonald's in Manhattan is the nation's first to sport a sleek, chic interior imported from stores in London and Paris.
- Italians were outraged by a minister's comments that lunchbreaks are bad for waistlines and the economy.
- Playboy will outsource its publishing operations in a bid to become profitable again.
- For nearly three decades, these on-call experts have been dishing advice on how to – and not to – cook turkey.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes