View report page

19
in Lewisham compared with either London or England and Wales.
With regard to London, although it is true that the Lewisham rate has
always (apart from 1944/45) been somewhat below the London rate,
the difference is tending to increase, and last year the Lewisham rate
dropped away precipitously to little over 50 percent of the London
rate. With regard to England and Wales the Lewisham rate was
always considerably higher than the England and Wales rate, in 1941
reaching over 160 percent of the latter rate, but from 1945 the Lewisham
rate began approximating to the England and Wales rate and in 1949
for the first time it fell below it. Last year, 1952, it was only just over
70 percent of the England and Wales rate.
Graph (ii), the infant mortality rate, does not show so healthy a
picture. In fact, compared with London and with England and Wales,
both of which it used always to be well below, the general trend has been
to approximate more and more to these rates, and in 1950 and again
in 1951 it was exactly equal to the London rate while still remaining a
little below the England and Wales rate.
Graph (iii), the neonatal rate. Unfortunately we have no figures
for Lewisham between 1938 and 1948 and so the graph is incomplete.
If it shows anything it indicates that the Lewisham rate is not really
significantly better than the London rate, though it is still somewhat
better than the England and Wales rate.
The last graph (graph (iv)) deals with the stillbirth rate. This
indicates that apart from 1939 and 1942 the Lewisham rate has never
been above the London rate, although on two other occasions it equalled
it. On the whole it has kept fairly well below the London rate. With
regard to England and Wales, on only one occasion has the Lewisham
rate exceeded the England and Wales rate, namely in 1942 ; it has in
fact been considerably below the England and Wales rate although
it may be that in recent years there has been a tendency for it to
approach that rate.
Lung cancer
It is necessary to remark on the incidence of cancerous growths in
the lung and bronchial tubes. The number of deaths ascribed to this
condition has grown in recent years at a startling rate, and it will be
known that latterly the association of the disease with tobacco smoking
has been brought to the fore. There seems no doubt from the
investigations which have taken place that this association is a real one
though it is also possible, if not indeed probable, that there are other
factors which have to be present to, so-to-speak, precipitate the disease.
Certain investigations have indicated that the rate of the disease is
greater in industrial towns, and more particularly large towns like
London, where there is an increase in the general coal and other smoke
in the air and where there is also a relatively smaller amount of sunshine
than there is in the country. There are of course many factors and
interests involved, but it is only right to say that on present information,
the advice which should be given to anyone, particularly a younger
person, is to eliminate or considerably cut down tobacco smoking,