Washington - Arab Today
A new study says that 40 percent of all cancers diagnosed in the United States may be linked to tobacco use.
According to the Vital Signs report in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, for each year between 2009 and 2013, approximately 660,000 people in the United States were diagnosed with, and about 343,000 people died from, a cancer associated with tobacco use.
"There are more than 36 million smokers in the U.S.," said CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD, MPH.
Data published in a separate MMWR report reveal that current cigarette smoking among adults in the United Stated dropped to 15.1 percent (36.5 million) in 2015 from 20.9 percent (45.1 million) a decade earlier. There was a decline of 1.7 percentage points in 2014–15 alone.
While the result is the lowest prevalence of adult cigarette smoking since CDC's National Health Interview Survey began collecting such data in 1965, more work is needed.
The Vital Signs report on tobacco-related cancers noted that, geographically, incidence rates were highest in the Northeast (202 per 100,000 persons) and lowest in the West (170 per 100,000 persons).
The incidence rate of tobacco-related cancer was 250 per 100,000 persons among men, compared with 148 per 100,000 persons among women.
Source: QNA