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Maternal mortality—
Table (ix)—Maternal mortality, 1950-59
Year
Live births
and
still-births
Deaths in
pregnancy or
child-birth
excluding
abortion
Postabortion
deaths
Total Maternal deaths
No.
Rate
per 1,000
total births
1950
54,715
29
9
38
0.69
1951
53,460
24
18
42
0.79
1952
52,433
35
15
50
0.95
1953
52,080
21
16
37
0.71
1954
51,774
28
6
34
0.66
1955
50,860
31
8
39
0.77
1956
53,241
16
11
27
0.51
1957
53,816
15
13
28
0.52
1958
55,254
14
19
33
0.60
1959*
56,276
22
12
34
0.60
* tor the fourth year running none oj the deaths in pregnancy or childbirth was due to sepsis; eight of the 12
post-abortion deaths came under the catagory of* abortion with sepsis'.
Summary tables—Tables summarising the more important of these vital statistics (a) by
metropolitan boroughs and (b) showing the secular trend for the County are to be found on
pages 19 and 20.
Air pollution
In previous reports I have given, in some detail, evidence in support of the hypothesis
that when the mean daily level of air pollution reaches 200 milligrams of black suspended
matter ('Smoke') per 100 cubic metres of air and 40 parts of acidic gases (SOa) per 100
million parts of air, an 'excess' of deaths may be expected.
The winter of 1958-59 was notable for the large number of foggy days although on no
one day was the concentration referred to above attained by both constituents of pollution,
though they came very close to it. On two occasions, once in January, and again in
February, 1959, the critical level for 'sulphur dioxide' alone was exceeded. Neither of these
two near 'smogs' appeared to have any serious effect on mortality, though on the latter
occasion the situation was complicated by the prevalence of the influenza epidemic. A full
report on these episodes was given in a paper published in 'The Medical Officer' on
16 October, 1959.
There were two foggy incidents later in the year, in mid-November and early December,
but in neither of these two instances was the critical level more than three-quarters attained.
Comparisons are now available for the past six winters of the average levels of pollution
based on the seven recording stations described in appendix B to my report for 1956.
Winter averages (a) of air pollution
Winter
'Smoke
(b)
'Sulphur
dioxide' (c)
Ratio
smoke/S02
1954-1955
49
11.1
4.41
1955-1956
52
11.8
4.40
1956-1957
45
10.2
4.41
1957-1958
41
11.5
3.57
1958-1959
43
11.9
3.61
1959-1960
32
9.6
3.33
(a) Average daily readings of seven volumetric recording stations.
(b) Milligrams of black suspended matter per 100 cubic metres of air.
(c) Acidic gases in parts per 100 million parts of air.
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