Smoking is responsible for 87 percent of lung cancers. The risk of dying of lung cancer is 22 times higher for male smokers and 12 times higher for female smokers than for people who have never smoked. Overall, smoking rates for African American, White and Hispanic men and women have significantly decreased since the 1960's and 1970's. For all ethnicities, men continue to have higher smoking rates than women. African American men have higher rates than Hispanic or White men.
White women have higher smoking rates than Hispanic or African American women.
CancerFax is a service of the National Cancer Institute which enables you to obtain cancer information via fax. There is no charge other than the telephone call from your fax machine to the CancerFax computer in Bethesda, Maryland. White adolescents have the highest smoking rates. African American adolescents have the lowest smoking rates. For all ethnicities combined, adolescent smoking rates progressively increase from the 9th to the 12th grade.