Title: 5 States Where Lung Cancer Rates Are the Highest | The Motley Fool
Headings: 5 States Where Lung Cancer Rates Are the Highest
5 States Where Lung Cancer Rates Are the Highest
Lung cancer is the third-most diagnosed type of cancer, but is the most deadly. These are the five states with the highest incidence rate of lung cancer in the U.S.

Content: State
Age-Adjusted Incidence Rate
Kentucky
97.3
West Virginia
76.5
Tennessee
76.2
Mississippi
74.7
Maine
73.2
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, rates per 100,000 people for men and women, based on 2010 data. To add context to these figures, the national average lung and bronchus cancer incidence rate is about 62 people per 100,000, with Utah claiming the nation's lowest rate at 26.8 cases per 100,000 people. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are a couple of contributing factors which could lead to this east of the Mississippi River bias that we also witnessed with overall cancer incidence rates. One big factor is obviously smoking rates. Tobacco products have been decisively linked as a primary contributing factor to lung cancer and a number of other cancers, yet quite a few of the states on this list have a percentage of adult smokers well above the national average of 18%. According to a study from Health.com, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, and West Virginia all rank in the top 10 among states with the highest percentage of smokers. In addition, states like Kentucky rely on tobacco production for jobs and state revenue, with the states' farmers responsible for growing 150 million pounds of tobacco products in 2012.