The rate of Americans dying from lung disease has rocketed 30 percent since 1980, new figures reveal.
Researchers at the University of Washington analyzed death records stretching back 34 years from the US Census Bureau.
They found the national rate of deaths increased from 40.8 per 100,000 to 52.9 per 100,000, despite recent successful measures to curb lung-related deaths in some areas.
Most states have seen an increase in deaths: decreases in the mortality rate have been confined to the most privileged seven percent of the country.
But the driving force behind the increase in national death rates comes from the impoverished South. Some counties along the Appalachian Trail have seen the mortality rate increase by as much as 224 percent.
