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39
Loss of revenue resulting from a decline in cigarette smoking
would be a serious matter for any Government to contemplate,
but losses would be offset by a saving of expenditure on treatment
necessarily incurred in connection with preventable lung
cancers and the country would benefit from a reduction in the
number of man-hours lost as a result of chronic bronchitis. A
drop in the number of families falling to public charge resulting
from coronary catastrophe would also lead to a substantial financial
saving.
There is no reasonable doubt that but for the smoking habit
the number of deaths from lung cancer would be almost insignificant
and, to exemplify the public's illogicality, if an additive to
food were suspected of killing some 24,000 persons each year
there would be a national outcry as witness the indignation
shown in respect of the recent revelations in connection with pesticides
and insecticides. Again, it is paradoxical that whereas
a yearly total of about 7,000 road deaths provokes, justifiably,
a great deal of anxiety in the minds of the public, there is almost
complete complacency about the growing menace of already considerable
number of lung cancer deaths.
As a matter of interest and worthy of comment the U.S.
Federal Trade Commission has stated that it was unfair and
deceptive for manufacturers not to disclose in their advertising
and packaging that smoking is a hazard to health. In the United
States of America from 1st January, 1965, all cigarette packets
must contain a warning that cigarette smoking is dangerous and
may cause death from cancer and that advertisements will have
to include a similar warning from 1st July of the same year.
Vascular Lesions of Nervous System.—This class, which
includes deaths arising from Cerebral Haemorrhage, Embolism and
Thrombosis was responsible for a total of 80 deaths (26 males, 54
females). The age distribution was as follows:—1 between 15
and 25 years; 1 between 25 and 45 years; 14 between 45 and 65
years; 25 between 65 and 75 years and 39 from 75 years upwards.
This year's total of 80 indicates a fall of 16 from that of 1962
and a reduction in the rate from 1.14 to 0.96.
Heart Disease.—Under the new classification this disease has
been divided into three sub-headings: (a) Coronary Disease,
Angina, (b) Hypertension with Heart Disease, and (c) Other Heart
Disease.
The total registered deaths allocated to these categories
amounted to 306 (151 males—155 females) compared with a figure
of 314 for 1962, and as usual, the deaths from this category
occupied the principal place in the classification of diseases in
that they formed over 32% of the total deaths from all causes.