--- title: Smoking: 30% of Cancer Deaths Are Linked to Cigarettes description: Smoking-related cancer death rates are highest in the South, according to a new study of tobacco and 12 types of cancer canonical: https://time.com/4542672/smoking-cigarettes-cancer-death/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-24T15:50:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T01:22:45.086Z article:section: Health og:title: 30% of Cancer Deaths Are Due to Smoking og:description: Smoking-related cancer death rates are highest in the South, according to a new study of tobacco and 12 types of cancer og:url: https://time.com/4542672/smoking-cigarettes-cancer-death/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltda99ffa914dedac7/6988ab3c428a9e4e51cd4bed/pack-of-cigarettes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3264 og:image:height: 1836 og:image:alt: cigarette pack og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 30% of Cancer Deaths Are Due to Smoking twitter:description: Smoking-related cancer death rates are highest in the South, according to a new study of tobacco and 12 types of cancer twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltda99ffa914dedac7/6988ab3c428a9e4e51cd4bed/pack-of-cigarettes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 30% of Cancer Deaths Are Due to Smoking > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=5606da14-1208-45f4-b22b-1f7e8eb063fb&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Oct 24, 2016 3:50 PM UTC  Getty Images  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Oct 24, 2016 3:50 PM UTC About a third of cancer deaths in American men and a quarter in women are linked to cigarette smoking, finds a new [study](http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2571615) published in _JAMA Internal Medicine_. [Smoking](http://time.com/4257561/how-to-quit-smoking-best/?iid=sr-link5) is the biggest preventable cause of death from cancer and other diseases, yet there are still 40 million smokers in the U.S. Researchers from the American Cancer Society in Atlanta calculated the percentage of cancer deaths among Americans 35 years and older due to cigarette smoking in 2014, state by state. They found that nearly 29% of cancer deaths were because of smoking. For men, the percentage of smoking-related cancer deaths in the U.S. ranged geographically, from about 22% in Utah to nearly 40% in Arkansas. In every state except for Utah, it was at least 30%. For women, it was much lower: at least 20% in all states except Utah, California and Hawaii. Women in Utah were the least affected by smoking-related cancer deaths, at 11%, and Kentucky women were the most, at 29%. Men are more likely to smoke than women but their chromosomes may also be to blame for their higher cancer death rate; recent research has shown that [smoking reduces the number of Y chromosomes in blood cells](http://time.com/3618271/smoking-cancer-men/?iid=sr-link4), which help contain tumors. In some states, however, female smokers are catching up to men. Recently a higher proportion of women were found to be smokers than men in South Dakota, Montana and Arkansas. Rates are highest in the South—where nearly 40% of cancer deaths in men are linked to smoking—because of the region’s lax laws around smoking policies and relatively weak tobacco control programs, the study authors say. They also caution that these estimates are probably low. The authors only considered 12 types of cancers, while many more are known to be affected by smoking, and they did not include other types of exposure to tobacco, like second-hand smoke, [hookah](http://time.com/2960476/hookah-high-school-teens/?iid=sr-link1), cigars and [e-cigarettes](http://time.com/4319285/ood-and-drug-administration-e-cigarettes-cigars-regulated/?iid=sr-link5), in the analysis. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4542672/smoking-cigarettes-cancer-death/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4542672/smoking-cigarettes-cancer-death/"},"headline":"30% of Cancer Deaths Are Due to Smoking","datePublished":"2016-10-24T15:50:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:22:45.086Z","description":"Smoking-related cancer death rates are highest in the South","url":"https://time.com/4542672/smoking-cigarettes-cancer-death/","keywords":["Public Health","Death","Smoking","Cigarettes","Cancer","Addiction","lung cancer"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltda99ffa914dedac7/6988ab3c428a9e4e51cd4bed/pack-of-cigarettes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mandy Oaklander","jobTitle":"Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltda99ffa914dedac7/6988ab3c428a9e4e51cd4bed/pack-of-cigarettes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"cigarette pack","caption":"cigarette pack","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/public-health/","name":"Public Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4542672/smoking-cigarettes-cancer-death/","name":"30% of Cancer Deaths Are Due to Smoking"}}]}] ```