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21
These findings have been assessed carefully by a special panel
under the chairmanship of the Government acting on behalf of the
Standing Advisory Committee on Cancer and Radiotherapy, and
the Standing Advisory Committee of the Central Health Services
Council has advised the Ministry of Health that a relationship
between smoking and cancer of the lung has been established,
and that young persons should be warned of the risk.
The strength of the evidence put forward so far has moved
tobacco manufacturers in America to set up a special committee
for research into the connection between lung cancer and smoking,
and it is significant that manufacturers of tobacco in Britain have
now given a donation of £250,000 to the Medical Research Council
to be used at the Council's discretion.
It is proverbially difficult to teach old dogs new tricks, and
in the meantime the older generation of smokers will no doubt
continue to please themselves ; but every effort should be made to
dissuade young people from the use of tobacco—especially
cigarettes.
As long ago as 1857 there appeared in The Lancet a long and
lively correspondence on what was called " The Great Tobacco
Question," and the conclusion at that time, although based on
different arguments, appears to be appropriate today :—
" We most earnestly desire to see the habit of smoking
diminish and we entreat the youth of the country to abandon
it altogether."
%
Coronary Thrombosis
Coronary thrombosis—the clotting of blood in the arteries
supplying blood to the heart muscle—has become " news " during
recent years, for it is a common cause of death among well known
public personages, and many others less well known. In any case,
it is commonly regarded as one of the diseases, such as gastric or
duodenal ulcer, due to the stress and nervous strain of modern life—
therefore on the increase.
In the official classification of causes of death there was no
separate classification of coronary diseases before 1950, when they
were included among heart diseases. But since (and including) 1950