Lung cancer deaths on rise in Nevada

Tuesday, March 23, 1999 | 11:19 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- While lung cancer death rates are holding steady nationally, they are rising dramatically in Nevada.

The state Health Division reported Monday the lung cancer death rate in 1997 in Nevada was 78 per 100,000 people. That compares with 46.4 in the state per 100,000 population in 1991.

In contrast, lung cancer death rates nationally registered at 59.3 in 1996, compared with 58.9 in 1990.

The report was released the same day that the Assembly Judiciary Committee heard testimony on a bill to allow counties to impose stricter smoking ordinances than the state law.

Cigarette smoking was the cause of more than 90 percent of all lung cancer deaths, the division said. And Nevada has the fourth-highest smoking rate in the nation, with nearly 28 percent of adults smoking.

"Lung cancer death rates are soaring," State Health Officer Dr. Mary Guinan said. "Over 7,000 Nevadans died of lung cancer from 1991 to 1997."

She expressed particular concern about the smoking rate among the state's high school students: 28 percent of boys and 30 percent of girls.

"It is critical that we implement smoking prevention and reduction programs for Nevada youth and make smoking cessation programs available to all smokers," Guinan said.

From 1991 to 1997, 4,256 people in Clark County died from lung cancer. In Washoe County, 1,103 died, and another 964 died in the rural counties. In those years, men died at a greater rate than women from lung cancer, 69.l to 50.5 per 100,000 population.

A recent study, Guinan said, showed a combination of a nicotine patch and the Zyban oral medication was the most effective method of smoking cessation, with almost 50 percent of smokers able to stop on this regimen.