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17
Two persons were in their thirties, seven in their forties, nine in their
fifties and two each in each of the next three decades. The peak age for
women in the country as a whole is 25 to 34; for men there are two
peaks, 35 to 44 and 55 to 64. The commonest method used is an overdose
of drugs.
Deaths from Cancer
Of the 1,937 deaths of residents in this district, 415 were due to
cancer, this causing 24 per cent, of the deaths of males and 20 per cent,
of the deaths of females.
Of the 233 deaths from this cause amongst males, in 80 the site was
the lung, in 26 the stomach. Of the 192 deaths amongst females, the
breast was the site in 31, the stomach in 19, lungs in 17 and the uterus
in 22.
The 415 deaths from cancer this year were much the same as the
number (420) of the previous year.
Cancer of the Lung. The number of deaths from cancer of the
lung is rising each year. In 1951 something over 13,000 people in this
country died from it; in 1952 over 14,000, in 1953 over 15,000, in 1954
over 16,000, in 1955 over 17,000 and in 1956 it was responsible for the
deaths of something over 18,000 persons. It is predicted that this figure
will reach 25,000; and this is the picture wherever cigarettes are being
smoked. In this country cancer of the lung causes one death every
half-hour. Each year about half a million persons die in this country.
Of these nearly 50,000 are due to cancer, and in about one third of these
deaths in men, the site is the lung. As contrasted with the 19,118 deaths
in England and Wales from this complaint in 1957, there were only 4,250
from respiratory tuberculosis. Cancer of the lung is now causing each
year more than four times as many deaths as tuberculosis, and four times
the number of deaths on the roads.
The attention that is being paid to this subject is not merely a fad
°f the statisticians. This complaint is causing the deaths of a substantial
proportion of the population; and it is not a pleasant form of death.
On top of that is the fact that each year the figures are rising.
It has been suspected for some time that the condition of the air we
breathe is one of the factors in the aetiology of the disease, suspicion
tailing on such carcirogens as benzpyrene or arsenic, present in the air
•n urban communities and which have their origin in the smoke from
the industrial and the domestic chimney. This atmospheric pollution
could account for the higher incidence of the complaint amongst those
o' the same ages living in urban as compared with rural communities,
and could account for the higher incidence amongst those living on the
"orth-eastern side of London as compared with those living in the southwest,
those on the lee-side breathing air which has been contaminated in
's passage over London. But in general the atmosphere is less polluted
an it was, and yet cancer of the lung is commoner. Atmospheric
Pollution, then, is not the explanation, and is suspected of being respon^
'e perhaps at the outside for twenty per cent, of the cases. If it were
very important factor, non-smokers and women would not be so
relatively immune.