View report page

7
To the Chairman and Members of the
Chislehurst and Sidcup Urban District Council.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Amongst those who pick up and read this report will be some
who have had experience of a new car and will remember what
devoted care and attention was lavished upon it during its early
weeks and perhaps months, but as time passed the first flush of
enthusiasm gradually died away, leaving the vehicle more and more
to its own devices. I cannot help wondering if to some extent we
are treating the ageing human organism in somewhat the same way,
and bestowing all our benefits on the very young, and then leaving
them to look after themselves. There is so much we can teach
the young and middle-aged adult about caring for themselves,
both at the present and with an eye to the future, and this is my
annual opportunity to stress some of the matters which have most
struck me during the course of the year.
This letter is of course not by any means the only channel
of communication between the Public Health department and the
Public, for the contact between the Public Health Inspectors and
the population at large, is a very close and constant one, and those
very valuable and able officers are undoubtedly our most useful
Health Educators. Incidentally, this is the first time that in any
annual report I have used the designation of "Public Health
Inspector," for it was only during the last year that by Act of
Parliament, their name was altered from the former sanitary
inspector. To my mind the alteration is for the better, giving as
it appears to, a much clearer picture of the varied duties undertaken
by these officers.
I have digressed a little from my theme, but will now revert to
dealing with matters of Health Education which appear to me to
be of vital importance.
In the first place, I feel that no apology is needed for drawing
attention once again to the mounting volume of statistical evidence,
of an association between tobacco smoking and the incidence of
lung cancer. This is no attempt at scare-mongering or dictation
to a social custom, but merely a statement of fact of which as
many people as possible should be made aware as frequently as
possible. This information is given particularly for the benefit of
those who may not yet have commenced the smoking habit, for
it is they who are likely to derive the most advantage from taking
heed of the knowledge so far gained.
Another matter to which I feel constrained to refer is the still
too prevalent habit of not keeping meat, which has been heated,
in a cool atmosphere subsequent to that heating. It is most