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Maternal Death Rate. Three deaths of mothers due to child-birth
were recorded in 1963, giving a maternal death rate per 1,000 live and
still births of 0.90. (The provisional maternal mortality rate for the
County of London was 0.43 and for England and Wales the figure was 0.28.)
Infectious Diseases. There was no serious outbreak of infectious
disease in the borough during 1963. The total number of notifications
received was 1,394 in comparison with 714 in 1962. The difference is
almost entirely due to the increase in the number of cases of measles
notified in 1963 compared with the previous year.
Tuberculosis. The death rate from all forms of tuberculosis per
100,000 population was 7.0, which was the same as last year's figure. The
1963 Kensington death rate compares with the rate (provisional) of 6.3 for
England and Wales.
Lung Disease. Kensington's death rate from pulmonary tuberculosis
per 100,000 population in 1963 showed no change compared with the
previous year, but the death rate for cancer of the lung showed an increase.
Comparative figures for England and Wales showed a decrease in the rate in
respect of pulmonaiy tuberculosis, but a continuing increase in the death
rate for lung cancer. The following table shows the trend in these
diseases for the past ten years
Year
1
England and Wales
Kensington
Pulmonary
Tuberculosis
Cancer of
the Lung
Pulmonaiy
Tuberculosis
Cancer of
the Lung
Deaths
Rate
Deaths
Rate
Deaths
Rate
Deaths
Rate
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
1956 4,851 10.9 18,185 40.7 19 11.2 73 43.2
1957 4,250 9.5 19,118 42.6 13 7.7 90 53.6
1958 4,000 8.9 19,809 43.9 10 6.0 79 47.7
1959 3,475 7.7 21,063 46.4 9 5.4 75 45.0
1960 3,094 6.8 21,992 48.1 11 6.6 94 56.0
1961 3,002 6.5 22,810 49.4 16 9.45 71 42.0
1962 2,774 5.9 23,779 51.0 11 6.4 75 43.6
1963 2,613 5.6 24,422 51.9 11 6.4 84 48.8
(Death rates quoted above are per 100,000 population.)
The indictment of cigarettes as the cause of lung cancer in
the Royal College of Physicians 1962 Report on Smoking and Health has
been more than fully substantiated and endorsed by the recently published
report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon-General of the
American Public Health Service. This states unequivocally that
"Cigarette smoking is causally related to lung cancer in man; the
magnitude of the effect of cigarette smoking far outweighs all other
factors..... In comparison with non-smokers, the average male smokers
of cigarettes have approximately a 9 to 10-fold risk of developing lung
cancer and heavy smokers at least a 20-fold risk The data for
women though less extensive point in the same direction."
Even more recently the original exponents of this subject,
Sir Austin Bradford Hill and Dr. Richard Doll, writing in the British
Medical Journal, have shown that the death rate of cigarette smokers
from cancer of the lung has been thirteen times the rate of nonsmokers,
and the death rate of heavy cigarette smokers has been more
than 30 times the rate of non-smokers. Probably one of their most
dramatic and convincing pieces of evidence is a table relating to
doctors, among 41,000 of whom they have conducted and are conducting
a prospective survey. This table, which relates the death from lung