View report page

32
In cancer of the lung causative agents other than tobacco are
also indicted. In particular benzpyrene, a product of coal combustion,
is also found in the exhaust fumes from motor vehicles and
in both instances substantial reduction if not complete elimination
of the emission of this carcinogen is possible. Public awareness and
pressure can make this possibility a reality.
Cancer Registration.—Consideration has been given at various
times to the question of making malignant diseases notifiable for,
in present circumstances, the only information available to a
Medical Officer of Health is that obtained from the Death Returns.
He therefore gains no knowledge of the incidence, effective treatment,
recovery rates or possible pre-disposing factors. It was just
these omissions that registration was intended to cover.
In recent years the World Health Organisation has emphasised
the value of a system of cancer registration and "follow up" and
its reasons given for such a scheme are fourfold, viz.: —
(a) for improving the possibility that patients developing
cancer shall in future receive the earliest and best treatment
available ;
(b) for increasing knowledge of cancer morbidity and its
relationship with social and environmental factors ;
(c) for providing indications for scientific studies on particular
points of the aetiology of cancer ;
(d) for ascertaining the prospects of survival and apparent
recovery with a view to measuring in the future the value
of steps taken to secure earlier and better treatment.
In thlis connection. Great Britain makes available to this
Organisation a progressively increasing volume of information on
the incidence and epidemiology of cancer, mainly by reason of its
cancer registration scheme now widely established in this country.
On the implementation of the National Health Act. arrangements
for cancer registration, begun in 1930 by the Radium Commission,
became the responsibility of the fifteen Regional Hospital
Boards and although such arrangements for registration were not
of a compulsory nature, some fourteen of the Regions had in fact
some sort of registration scheme in operation by the end of 1959.
albeit some of these schemes do not cover the whole of their respective
regions. Since 1947 statistical control and analysis has been
undertaken by the General Register Office.
Vascular Lesions of Nervous System.—This class, which
includes deaths arising from Cerebral Haemorrhage, Embolism and
Thrombosis was responsible for a total of 116 deaths (53 males, 63