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factory conditions. The tuberculosis death rate also began to
fall about the same time and the fall has continued unabated
to the present day. Improved standards of living and medical
discoveries have combined to bring this about and to raise
the general expectation of life of the population.
Why then has the death rate not continued to fall? The
answer is twofold. Firstly with an ageing population more
people may be expected to die for there is a limit to which
life can be prolonged and, secondly, deaths from certain
causes have increased over the past quarter of a century
notably, cancer of the lung, cardio-vascular disease, including
coronary disease and accidents both on the roads and in
the home. The causes of these epidemics, for this is what
they really are, are so complex and interwoven in the fobric
of our Society that there can be no easy way to their prevention.
The highly competitive nature of life today, the
pursuit of ever-increasing standards of living, automatic,
and the advances of science and technology, good in many
respects, unfortunately bring with them new hazards to
human health and happiness, e.g. radio active contamination
atmospheric pollution, noise, sophistication of our food
supplies, speed and a materialistic outlook which is not conducive
to the mental health of the population.
In 1950, the first year in which separate figures became
available for cancer of the lung, the number of deaths from
this cause was 21 compared with 53 in 1962 and 47 in 1963.
The number of deaths ascribed to coronary disease similarly
rose from 102 in 1950 to 205 in 1962 and 178 in 1963.
During the period 28th October to 1st November, 1963,
a Smoking and Health Campaign was held in conjunction
with Erith and Crayford. The spearhead of this was a five day
visit to the area of the Central Council for Health Education
mobile unit which visited a number of secondary schools
and a Youth organisation. Films were shown at those schools
not actually visited by the Unit. Ten thousand copies of a
personal letter addressed to parents by the Medical Officer
of Health were distributed thoughout the schools and a large
number of leaflets and posters were made available in the at
The Campaign made a good impact on the public at
the time but I fear that it will take much more than this to
shake the public generally out of their apathy in regard to
this problem. Section 32 of the Children and Young Persons
Act, 1963 substantially increases the penalty for the sale of
tobacco to persons under 16 years of age but it would appear
that the problem of enforcement will remain.
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