Thursday is World No Tobacco Day and the Missouri Department of Health is taking advantage of the day to remind residents of this state of the heavy toll taken by tobacco use. Tobacco is blamed for more than 9,900 deaths every year in Missouri, and the Department wants to highlight that fact, as well as the fact that lung cancer is the leading cause of all cancer deaths in the state. It warns that if current trends continue, 119,000 Missouri children now under 18 will die from tobacco-related diseases.



Missourinet