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: 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. Another possible factor is obesity, which has been shown to be a high-risk factor for a number of different types of cancers. Based on a 2012 self-reporting study by the CDC, 13 states have obesity rates above 30%. Four of those 13 states -- Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia -- are among the states with the highest lung cancer occurrence rates. Finally, there's the potential that exposure to trace elements, some of which are known to cause cancer, such as arsenic, cadmium, chromium, and nickel, in the Appalachian Mountain region could be responsible for this East Coast-versus-West Coast incidence rate bias. In 2011 the U.S. Department of Defense awarded the University of Kentucky's Markey Cancer Center $1.43 million to conduct a three-year study on these elements in soil and water found in eastern Kentucky.