Missouri, Arkansas among national leaders in smoking-related cancer deaths [Video]

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) – It’s a Top 10 list that you definitely don’t want to be on.

However, according to an extensive study compiled by online pharmacy company NowPatient, the two states that make up the KY3-KSPR viewing area are ranked 3rd and 5th out of 50 states in terms of cancer deaths related to cigarette smoking.

West Virginia (37.8 percent) and Kentucky (37.2 percent) had the highest percentage of smoking-related cancer deaths. Arkansas was third with 36.1 percent, and Missouri came in fifth with 34.4 percent, just behind fourth-place Tennessee (34.9 percent).

Those percentages mean that in both Arkansas and Missouri, one out of every three people die of cancer because they smoked.

And it obviously doesn’t have to be that way.

“This is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States today,” pointed out Jim Brawner, a Community Educator with CoxHealth.

“It’s really difficult as a healthcare provider to see patients who can control their …