North Davis County is smoking — literally.
Well, that's the theory.
In a county known for clean living and high morals, the north is apparently a little less virtuous than the south. That is if smoking is a moral issue.
In a study being readied for publication in the scholarly journal Utah's Health, researchers from the University of Utah discovered that during the '90s residents of northern Davis County (above Farmington) had a greater chance of contracting lung cancer than their neighbors in the county's southern end.
While researchers did not pin down a reason for the discrepancy, there is a hypothesis.
"It's interesting to note that there's more smokers in the north than in the south," said Lewis Garrett, director of the county health department, which commissioned the university's study.
Lynn Lyon, an epidemiologist at the U.'s department of family and preventive medicine, and George White, dean of the U.'s school of public health, headed the study, which examined all sorts of cancer rates in the county.
"(Smoking) is a supposition, but it's probably not a bad one," Lyon said.
If smoking isn't the cause, researchers say they're baffled.
"If it weren't smokers we don't know what it would be," White said.
Smoking is the No. 1 cause of lung cancer, and many factors in the north suggest a larger smoking population, White said.
Military personnel, migrant workers and the unemployed are more likely to smoke than the general population. Given the fact that the north includes Hill Air Force Base, a larger portion of orchards and more temporary employment, all three groups are likely heightened in north Davis County when compared to the south, White said.
Then there's the religious issue.
In the south there are "more stable residents and probably more residents that are members of the LDS faith. That would probably mean they're less likely to be smokers," White said.
LDS Church guidelines urge members to abstain from smoking; those who do cannot gain access to the church's temples.
The U. study produced an "age-adjusted rate ratio" for lung and other types of cancer in Davis County.
The state lung-cancer average (about 40 cases per 100,000 in males and 18 per 100,000 in females) was established as the base rate of 1. Southern Davis County's average was consistently below 1 over the 10-year period. The average for the north fluctuated near or above 1.
Garrett is quick to note that the rates are only slightly different but said it is interesting that the rates in north Davis were higher throughout the decade.
North Davis, however, remains below the national lung-cancer rate.
According to 2001 statistics from the United Health Foundation, 23.2 percent of the U.S. population smokes.
In Utah, only 12.9 percent are smokers — the lowest of all 50 states in terms of smokers as a percent of the state population.
"The bottom line," Garrett said, "is that north and south Davis, on the whole, are very close to the state average."
E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com