Published Mar 25, 2006
sirI, MSN, APRN, NP
17 Articles; 45,819 Posts
lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among american indians and alaskan natives, yet of 217 native languages spoken today most, if not all, do not include a word for "cancer."
lung cancer is more common in alaskan natives and northern plains tribes than among southwestern tribes. lung cancer death rates range from a low of 4.1 deaths per 100,000 in the tucson arizona district to a high of 28.5 deaths per 100,000 in the billings district, which covers montana and wyoming.7 an exception to this is the navajo indians in new mexico who have much higher death rates due to employment in uranium mining, which is known to contribute to lung cancer
american indian/alaskan native infants have sids rates 3 times higher than white infants and 2 times higher than the united states as a whole
for the entire fact sheet from the american lung association:
http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvluk9o0e&b=36053