London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Kensington 1955
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington Borough]
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nor exaggerated. The number of deaths from cancer of the
lung has risen from 2,286 in 1931 to 17,271 last year. To
place figures in perspective - in 1954, out of every
thousand deaths of men aged between 45 and 74, 77 were from
bronchitis, 112 were from strokes and apoplexies and 234
were from cancer, of which 85 were cancer of the lung.
Deaths of women from cancer of the lung are still not very
significant and represent a small fraction of the total.
The Chairman of the Committee of the Medical Research
Council, which has been investigating the subject, considers
that the fact that a casual agent has not yet been
recognised should not be allowed to obscure the fact that
there is, statistically, an incontrovertible association
between cigarette smoking and the incidence of lung cancer.
The statistical evidence from this and other countries to
which he refers tends to show that mortality from cancer
of the lung is twenty times greater amongst heavy smokers
than amongst non-smokers.
The Government will take such steps as are necessary
to ensure that the public are kept informed of all the
relevant information as and when it becomes available."
Whilst the outcome of the investigations will be awaited
ith interest by all, especially smokers, it is perhaps desirable
o draw attention to the position as far as Kensington is concerned.
The main disease of the lungs, of which the public are best bare, is pulmonary tuberculosis, and in the following table the death rates from this disease, since the end of the war, are compared with the death rates for lung cancer, both for Kensington and for England and Wales.
| Year | England and Wales | Kensington | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pulmonary Tuberculosis | Cancer of the Lung | Pulmonary Tuberculosis | Cancer of the Lung | |||||
| Deaths | Rate | Deaths | Rate | Deaths | Rate | Deaths | Rate | |
| 1947 | 19,753 | 47.3 | 9,204 | 22.0 | 71 | 43.0 | 58 | 34.9 |
| 1948 | 18,798 | 44.0 | 10,162 | 23.8 | 76 | 45.0 | 45 | 26.6 |
| 1949 | 17,471 | 40.5 | 10,975 | 25.5 | 56 | 32.0 | 50 | 28.7 |
| 1950 | 14,079 | 32.1 | 12,241 | 28.0 | 52 | 29.0 | 70 | 39.4 |
| 951 | 12,031 | 27.5 | 13,247 | 30.2 | 36 | 17.5 | 70 | 40.9 |
| 1952 | 9,335 | 21.2 | 14,218 | 32.3 | 29 | 16.8 | 71 | 41.1 |
| 1953 | 7,913 | 17.9 | 15,132 | 34.3 | 26 | 15.1 | 65 | 37.9 |
| 1954 | 7,069 | 16.0 | 16,331 | 36.9 | 20 | 11.7 | 72 | 42.2 |
| 1955 | 5,838 | 13.1 | 17,271 | 38.9 | 12 | 7.1 | 73 | 43.1 |
(Death rates quoted above are per 100,000 population)