{"id":3660,"date":"2015-12-26T22:21:37","date_gmt":"2015-12-26T22:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3660"},"modified":"2015-12-26T22:25:49","modified_gmt":"2015-12-26T22:25:49","slug":"tobacco-growing-tobacco-smoking-kentucky-leads-the-nation-in-cancer-rate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3660","title":{"rendered":"Tobacco-growing, tobacco-smoking Kentucky leads the nation in cancer rate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"691add6432bea01946eb234ae350fdf2\"
Kentucky tobacco farm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not the least bit surprising, but something to think about when it comes to tobacco control.<\/p>\n

This is why people in tobacco control care about the issue; ultimately it comes down to people dying from tobacco.<\/p>\n

When most people think of Kentucky, they think of horse country, the Kentucky Derby, and idyllic bluegrass hills. But, there’s a terrible dark side to that bucolic landscape. According to this USA Today story<\/a>, Kentucky has the dubious distinction of being No. 1 in the nation for having the worst cancer rate. The biggest reason why? Lung cancer.\u00a0Lung cancer is the third-most common form of cancer in the U.S. (behind breast cancer for women and prostate cancer for men). However, while lung cancer represents about 13 percent of all cancers, it also represents 27 percent of all cancer deaths. That’s the most … by a LOT. Lung cancer kills more people than colon, breast, pancreatic and prostate cancer combined.<\/em> It continues to be one of the most, if not the most, difficult form of cancer to treat.<\/p>\n

According to USA Today, the rate for lung cancer deaths in Kentucky is 50 percent higher than the\u00a0national average. From the article:<\/p>\n

Lung cancer incidence per 100,000 people: 92.4, compared with\u00a060.4 nationally. Mortality per 100,000:\u00a068.8\u00a0\u2014\u00a0around 120 in the hardest-hit\u00a0Appalachian counties \u2014\u00a0compared with\u00a045 nationally.<\/p>\n

\"KySmokingRates2011-13\"
Kentucky smoking rates, by county<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/blockquote>\n

Kentucky has a notoriously high smoking rate. It was the highest in the nation until recently, but now it is second highest in the U.S. at 26.5 percent,<\/a>\u00a0(only West Virginia is higher) considerably higher than the national average. Kentucky’s smoking rate was over 30 percent as recently as 10 years ago. The national average, according to this article, has dropped all the down to 15.2 percent (I haven’t seen that figure widely reported; I saw 16.8 percent a few weeks ago.). Kentucky also has a higher than normal death rate from breast, colon and cervical cancers. That might be partly attributable to smoking. Kentucky also has a ridiculously low cigarette tax at 60 cents a pack, one of the lowest in the nation. \u00a0The national average is over $1.50 a pack. There is also no statewide indoor smoking ban, though several large cities in Kentucky do ban smoking indoors. These factors help to encourage smoking. They really do. Every state that imposes a smoking ban and\/or raises its cigarette tax sees its smoking rate go down. Of course, Kentucky just elected a conservative Republican as its governor, so don’t expect a cigarette tax increase any time soon.<\/p>\n

From the article<\/p>\n

For many years, Kentucky has had a quarter of adults smoking,\u201d said oncologist Dr. Goetz Kloecker, a lung cancer specialist with University of Louisville Physicians. \u201cI have patients who started puffing at 8, 9 and 10 years old\u2026It\u2019s part of the culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of that culture, \u201ccigarettes are still cheaper than in other places,\u201d Kloecker added. \u201cIf you go to Chicago or New York, there are fewer teenagers starting to smoke. The higher the costs, the lower the smoking rate.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"TOBACCO-farmsGrowing<\/p>\n

One of the reasons smoking is so ingrained in the culture is Kentucky is one of the leading tobacco-growing states. Kentucky has a lot fewer tobacco farmers than it once did (wow, there were 56,000 tobacco farms in Kentucky in 1992), but it is still second in the U.S.<\/a> behind North Carolina in the level of tobacco produced. And in fact, North Carolina and Kentucky absolutely dominate the market with over 70 percent of the tobacco grown in the U.S. coming from those two states. (Interestingly, North Carolina actually has a statewide smoking ban and a relatively low smoking rate for a Southern state at 20.2 percent in 2013 — likely lower than that today.)<\/p>\n

Other environmental factors are playing a role. Kentucky has a high level of radon in homes and especially in the Appalachian region,\u00a0residents have high levels of chromium and arsenic in their systems. (Probably from mining operations and groundwater contamination.).<\/p>\n

Other factors are mentioned by USA Today, such as poor health screenings in the state and obesity, but the high smoking rate is the biggest factor, no doubt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not the least bit surprising, but something to think about when it comes to tobacco control. This is why people in tobacco control care about the issue; ultimately it comes down to people dying from tobacco. When most people think of Kentucky, they think of horse country, the Kentucky Derby, and idyllic bluegrass hills. But, … Continue reading Tobacco-growing, tobacco-smoking Kentucky leads the nation in cancer rate<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,421,35,1],"tags":[585,145,599],"class_list":["post-3660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cancer","category-kentucky","category-lung-cancer","category-uncategorized","tag-cancer","tag-kentucky","tag-lung-cancer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/f0e3e71471b882de55559e76fc9a5308.jpg?fit=736%2C441&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hpEa-X2","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":310,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=310","url_meta":{"origin":3660,"position":0},"title":"Kentucky and Tennessee tobacco growing","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"January 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Remember I wrote a couple days about about Bowling Green, Kentucky's, smoking ban? 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Forty percent of the cancer deaths for men in Arkansas are smoking -related cancers, while 29 percent of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cancer"","block_context":{"text":"Cancer","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/NASCAR-smoking.jpg?fit=1024%2C696&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/NASCAR-smoking.jpg?fit=1024%2C696&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/NASCAR-smoking.jpg?fit=1024%2C696&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/NASCAR-smoking.jpg?fit=1024%2C696&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3611,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3611","url_meta":{"origin":3660,"position":2},"title":"Analysis: The sickest states in the U.S., mostly in the South, do the least to snuff out smoking","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"November 13, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I already knew this, but I'm glad to see USA Today do a story on it. It's a fact that the highest rates of lung cancer are in the Deep South -- where there are few indoor smoking bans and cigarette taxes are ridiculously low. From the USA Today article:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cigarette taxes"","block_context":{"text":"Cigarette taxes","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=382"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/2006_lung_map_deaths.jpg?fit=443%2C302&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4106,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=4106","url_meta":{"origin":3660,"position":3},"title":"“Tobacco Nation” being left behind","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"November 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a really good story from U.S. News and World Report about how the smoking rate in the U.S. has dropped dramatically through much of the country ... except for one region. And that's this funky swath from the Upper Midwest, beginning in West Virginia and then into the Deep\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cigarette taxes"","block_context":{"text":"Cigarette taxes","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=382"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/smoking-map.jpg?fit=859%2C627&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/smoking-map.jpg?fit=859%2C627&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/smoking-map.jpg?fit=859%2C627&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/smoking-map.jpg?fit=859%2C627&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":805,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=805","url_meta":{"origin":3660,"position":4},"title":"New study: Cancer death rates in America dropping dramatically!","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"January 8, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Great, great news. According to a new study released by the American Cancer Society, cancer death rates have dropped drastically over the past 20 years -- 23 percent for men, and 15 percent for women. Two big reasons -- better screening and treatment, and a third reason obviously -- a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Cancer Society"","block_context":{"text":"American Cancer Society","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=5"},"img":{"alt_text":"down_chart","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/down_chart.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":876,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=876","url_meta":{"origin":3660,"position":5},"title":"Pot smoking doesn’t cause lung disease: The lung cancer gene, part 1","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"February 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A study that came out last month determined that occasional post smoking doesn't cause near the damage to lungs as cigarette smoking. The study followed 5,115 regular pot smokers over the course of 20 years. This reminds me very much of a study done about 5 years ago showing that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lung cancer"","block_context":{"text":"Lung cancer","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=35"},"img":{"alt_text":"marijuana","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/marijuana.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}