Annual report to the nation finds declines in cancer incidence and d...(st recommit ourselves to implementing to...),Health

Variation in smoking prevalence among the states is influenced by several factors, including public awareness of the harms of tobacco use, social acceptance of tobacco use, local tobacco control activities, and tobacco industry promotional activities targeted in a geographic area. The 13 states where lung cancer death rates for women are on the rise have higher percentages of adult female smokers, low excise taxes, and local economies that are traditionally dependent on tobacco farming and production. In contrast, California, which was the first state to implement a comprehensive, statewide tobacco control program, was the only state in the country to show declines in both lung cancer incidence and deaths in women.

According to a U.S. Surgeon General's report, cigarette smoking accounts for approximately 30 percent of all cancer deaths, with lung cancer accounting for 80 percent of the smoking-attributable cancer deaths. Other cancers caused by smoking include cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, stomach, bladder, pancreas, liver, kidney, and uterine cervix and myeloid leukemia.

"We can see that, in areas of the country where smoking and tobacco use are entrenched in daily life, men and women continue to pay a price with higher incidence and death rates from many types of cancer. This type of geographic variation in smoking-related cancers is due to smoking behaviors, not regional environmental factors," said Betsy A. Kohler, M.P.H., executive director of the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR).

"The observed decrease in the incidence and death rates from all cancers combined in men and women overall and in nearly all racial and ethnic groups is highly encouraging," conclude the authors. "However, this must be seen as
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