View report page

Telephone No.: FINchley 0018 Public Health Department,
308, Regents Park Road,
Finchley, N.3.
TO THE MAYOR, ALDERMEN AND COUNCILLORS
OF THE BOROUGH OF FINCHLEY.
In accordance with my statutory duty as your Medical Officer of
Health I have the honour to present the Annual Health Report for the
year 1960. This report is prepared according to the Ministry of
Health circular 1/61 and preceding relevant circulars.
VITAL STATISTICS:
(1) Population :
The Registrar-General's estimate at the 30th June, 1960, showed
a slight increase in population—68,980 as against 68,920 persons in
1959. This increase was to be expected in view of the slow-down in
the movement of families to the New Towns; the natural increase,
i.e., the number of births as related to deaths and the increase in the
number of separate dwellings provided in the Borough, some 341
dwellings having been provided in the past two years, bringing the
total number of inhabited houses to 20,636. 1961 is a Census Year
and more accurate data will be available.
(2) Death Rate:
The death rate of 10.7 was again lower than that of 1959 which
was 11.5, a total of 738 deaths as against 790. As is to be expected
diseases of the heart and blood vessels make up almost half the total
of deaths. Cancer of the lung caused 38 deaths as compared to 27 in
1959 and 35 in 1958. While diseases of the heart and blood vessels
may be due, to infection, or heredity, or stress conditions and ageing
processes and the methods of prevention complex, lung cancer has
quite definitely been related to one clear factor—excessive cigarette
smoking. Investigations carried out in the United States of America
and Britain showed that smokers are more likely to die from lung
cancer than non-smokers. An enquiry in 1952 gave the following
5