Smoking rates—and smoking-related deaths—have declined pretty steadily in the United States since a 1964 Surgeon General’s report that suggested smoking may be hazardous to your health. At that time, around 42 percent of American adults smoked. The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that for the first time on record, the smoking rate among U.S. adults has dropped below twenty percent (19.8%). In the CDC's Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Morbidity, and Economic Costs report, the agency reports that overall deaths rates from smoking declined in all but one state between 1996-1999 and 2000-2004. However, the smoking death rate actually increased for women in several states, and many states still have relatively high rates of smoking-related deaths. Below is a list of the states with the highest rates, followed in parenthesis by the smoking-attributable death rate per 100,000 residents and the percent change in that death rate between 1996-1999 and 2000-2004.

The top 10 states with the highest rates of smoking-related deaths for 2000-2004 are:

1. Kentucky (370.6 deaths per 100,000 residents, -13.3% change)
2. West Virginia (344.3, -21.5%)
3. Nevada (343.7, -44.4%)
4. Mississippi (333.6, -9.4%)
5. Oklahoma (332.1 +26.9%)
6. Tennessee (325, -12.4%)
7. Arkansas (323.7, -9.8%)
8. Alabama (317.5 -5.9%)
9. Indiana (308.9, -14.4%)
10. Missouri (307.8, -27.3%)

To find out more about lung diseases related to smoking, visit the Healia Health Community for Lung Diseases. Find help and support to quit smoking at the Healia Health Community for Smoking.

_{Source: Adhikari B et al "State-specific smoking-attributable mortality and years of potential life lost-United States 2000-2004" MMWR 2009; 58:29-33. http://www.cdc.gov/MMWR/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5802a2.htm}

_{Photo: Saudi..., Flickr, Creative Commons}