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in the previous year, but it must be remembered that the Mass X-Ray Unit of the
North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board was in operation throughout the
year, and was taken advantage of by many thousands of Islington residents and many
case of tuberculosis were thereby brought to light much earlier than would otherwise
have been the case. This enabled treatment to be commenced earlier, with greatly
improved hopes for the patients—and the patients themselves, through their knowledge
of the illness, took precautions much earlier than might have been done
otherwise to safeguard other members of their families and others with whom they
might be in close contact. Thus it is hoped that a temporary increase now in the
number of known cases will be the means of hastening a true reduction in the
number of new cases of pulmonary tuberculosis in future years.
I have also referred in the Report to the fact that cancer of the lungs is now
responsible for more deaths than tuberculosis, which is the reverse of the position
only a very few years ago. The fact that we do not yet know how lung cancer
arises is not necessarily an indication that nothing can be done until the cause is
discovered. Cholera was satisfactorily dealt with in London before the cholera
organism was discovered by taking action which appeared to be logical as a result
of the follow-up of cholera outbreaks through epidemiological enquiries. Cholera
was attacked on the assumption that it was caused by polluted water-supplies.
Pollution of the air we breathe seems to be a very important pre-disposing factor,
if not the ultimate cause of cancer of the lung, whether such pollution is done
personally by heavy tobacco smoking, or communally through the smoke we allow
to be discharged from chimneys, domestic and industrial, burning bituminous coal.
Pollution of the air in this way is a man-made factor which can be tackled with the
necessary will to do so.
In addition to the long-term effects of air pollution, Islington, in common with
other parts of London, suffered from the dense fog which commenced in the first
week of December. The Report records a sudden and tremendous jump in the
number of deaths due to bronchitis and pneumonia in the period immediately
following the fog, more especially among elderly persons. What cannot be included
in this Report is the vast amount of temporary but unrecorded invalidism due to
respiratory illness brought on by the fog which affected children and adults at all
ages. There is no reason to think that the conditions which produced this deadly
fog could not recur in any future winter, and the public must recognise that the
problem of air pollution is one which should be tackled with some urgency.
I have referred in previous Annual Reports to the high proportion of multistorey
out-of-date houses in which the majority of Islington people must continue
to live for many years to come. It is pleasing to record, as noted in the body of the
Report that the Council's Slum Clearance Programme, necessarily suspended on the
outbreak of war, has now been resumed. During the year, the Minister of Housing
and Local Government confirmed, after Public Enquiry, a Compulsory Purchase
Order in respect of part of Whadcoat Street. Slum clearance in Islington has been
the subject of discussion with the London County Council, and there is no doubt
that the programme will develop.