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by washing. To qualify for the label of low flammability. samples must
first undergo a washing test. The material is submitted to washing in a
washing machine for half an hour in a strong solution of chemicals and
detergents. After rinsing and drying it has to go through the whole
treatment a further eleven times. At the end of all this it must still retain
the flame resistant rating of 150. While labelling of a fabric "flameproof"
or "flame resistant" will be an offence unless it complies with the rating,
offering for sale highly inflammable fabrics without any label can still
be done without any offence being committed.
Deaths from Suicide
About twenty persons living in this district commit suicide each year.
This last year the figure was 32, ten men and twenty-two women. Coal
gas poisoning was again far and away the most common method used,
being chosen by nine men and fifteen women. Poisoning came next,
being the method chosen by five women.
There is no set pattern about the distribution of these occurrences
throughout the year. The greatest number in any one month was five in
December, though there were four in each of the months February,
April and July.
Although two of each sex were in their twenties and another two in
their thirties, the age distribution in the sexes differed; whereas all the
remaining men were over sixty, four of the remaining women were in
their forties, six in their fifties and six in their sixties.
Deaths from Cancer
Of the 2,078 deaths of residents in this district, 444 were due to cancer,
this causing 22 per cent of the deaths of males and 21 per cent of the deaths
of females.
Of the 231 deaths from this cause amongst males, in 91 the site was
the lung, in 25 the stomach. Of the 213 deaths amongst females, the breast
was the site in 55, the stomach in 21, lungs in 13 and the uterus in 10.
The 444 deaths from cancer this year were a sharp rise on the number
°f 414 in 1958 and the 415 of 1957. Twenty-two of this increase was due
to the greater number of deaths of cancer of the lung: in men, a figure
of 91 as against 71 in the previous year; in women it was 13 as against 11.
Cancer of the Lung. In 1931 some 13,000 people in this country
died of cancer of the lung. Each year since then there has been an increase
°i nearly one thousand in that figure. It is anticipated that in time it
will reach 25,000. There has been nothing to controvert the conclusion
of the Medical Research Council about the relationship of cancer of the
lung and cigarette smoking. "In the opinion of the Council, a most reasonable
interpretation of this evidence is that the relationship is one of direct
cause and effect."