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BRONCHITIS
There were 28 deaths from this disease, 19 males and 9 females.
Smoking may have been a factor which would account for the
excess of male over female deaths, but another factor which would
account for the exceptional prevalence of this disease in England
was brought to my attention by a Finnish doctor I met at a meeting
of the Royal Society of Health. I asked him — "Why is bronchitis
the Englishman's disease?" He replied — "It is because of your
cold English bedrooms." This is a theory well worth considering
as there is no doubt that bedrooms in this country tend to be cold.
The outstanding reason why English bedrooms are cold in
winter is because the windows are kept open; it is almost impossible
to compare the incidence of chronic bronchitis among those
who keep their windows open in winter with its incidence in those
who keep their windows closed, as it is very difficult to find anyone
in the second category in this country! Cold by itself may not be
harmful to a person in good health, but a child with whooping
cough who does not normally suffer a great deal during the day
when he is down in the living room with the fire going suffers the
spasms of whooping cough when he goes up to his cold bedroom
at night. This may give rise to lung damage and subsequent
chronic bronchitis. Cold fogs, on the other hand, have a precipitating
effect on the exacerbations of chronic bronchitis and are
associated with a high death rate among sufferers from this disease,
especially old people.
In my opinion the following two measures would have an
effect in cutting down the incidence of chronic bronchitis:—
1. Houses should be effectively insulated. This is the case, in
the main, in houses constructed by this Council.
2. Bedroom windows should be kept shut in cold weather,
especially cold foggy weather. Ventilation into the hall
through the open bedroom door is quite adequate. It is
going to be difficult to get people to do this as they take a
Spartan pride in keeping bedroom windows open throughout
the winter, presumably because of propaganda left over
from the seriously overcrowded conditions of the nineteenth
century.
There must be some 'custom of the country' which predisposes
to chronic bronchitis and it may well be that the cold English
bedroom is this factor.
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