Fewer New Yorkers are being diagnosed with cancers linked to tobacco than in years past, according to a new report by the New York State Department of Health.
Lung cancer diagnoses decreased by more than a quarter statewide between 2006 and 2020. In New York City, the lung cancer rate plummeted by nearly a third during the same time period. Throat cancers – of the larynx and esophagus — were also diagnosed less frequently in 2020.
In a mid-September press release announcing the findings, department officials chalked the changes up to tobacco control policies implemented over the last few decades — including banning tobacco use indoors, levying taxes on tobacco products and starting a free helpline for New Yorkers looking to quit smoking, which received more than 80,500 calls in 2019 alone. They also highlighted newer rules, like a $1-per-pack cigarette tax that went into effect earlier this month.
Tabassum Insaf, from the state health department’s Bureau of Cancer Epidemiology, said that she expects cancer rates to decrease even further as New York continues to crack down on tobacco products.
“When you see a consistent decline, it really drives home the point that this is a true decrease and this should continue if we continue on the same path,” she said.
Tobacco use has been linked to a host of cancers in the body. But research shows that lung cancer, oral cancer, esophageal cancer and laryngeal cancer are most closely connected. Smoking-related cancers killed close to 19,000 New Yorkers each year on average from 2016 to 2020, according to health department data. Lung cancer is especially common and deadly.
For the new report, researchers at the state health department consulted the NYS Cancer Registry, a comprehensive database of all cancer diagnoses and deaths across the state. They also gauged smoking rates using a pre-existing annual phone survey.
Of the four cancers most closely related to smoking, the researchers found that three declined…
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