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and August. Four of these people were in their fifties and three each in
their thirties, forties, sixties and seventies. One woman was only twentyfour
and one man was over eighty.
Deaths from Cancer.
Of the 2,146 deaths of residents in this district, 451 were due to cancer.
This disease caused 23 per cent of the deaths of males and 19 per cent of
the deaths of females.
In the country as a whole, cancer in 1960 caused 98,788 deaths, being
responsible for 19 per cent from all causes. These days then one person
in five dies from cancer. In women the standard mortality rate had fallen
from 101 in 1950 to 97 in 1960. In men on the other hand, the figure
increased from 98 to 108. The age distribution of these deaths in the
two sexes is different. In women 44.5 per cent of the deaths were in the
age group 45 to 50 and 42.4 per cent in the group 50 to 55. In men though,
28.4 per cent of the deaths were in the group 50 to 55 and 28.9 in the
group 55 to 60. The increase in the numbers of deaths from cancer
amongst women is due entirely to the larger numbers of the population
reaching the age at which they are prone to cancer. Men, however, show
an increase in the standard mortality rate which means that at any given
age the risk today of a man dying from cancer is greater than it was before.
The worsening of the position is almost entirely due to the rapid rise in the
number of deaths amongst men from cancer of the lung.
Of the 247 deaths from this cause amongst males, in 111 the site was
the lung, in 32 the stomach. Of the deaths amongst females the breast
was the site in 46, the stomach in 25, the lung in 19 and the uterus in 15.
Cancer of the Lung. In 1958, 71 men living in this district died
from cancer of the lung. In 1959 the number was 91; in 1960 it was 118;
last year it was 111.
Cancer of the lung was the cause of death of one out of every nine of
the men in this district who died in this last year.
In the country as a whole, for a number of years there has been in
each an increase of nearly one thousand deaths from cancer of the lung in
Men. In 1951 the figure was 13,000. By 1960 it had reached 22,000.
Many years ago it was anticipated that this steady increase would continue
until this malady was killing 25,000 men each year. Cancer of the lung
and bronchi is now the greatest killer, being responsible for one third of
all cancer deaths in men.
Of all cancer deaths in men in 1960, 18,882 or 35.8 per cent were
attributable to lung cancer. This was 701 or 3.9 per cent more than in 1959.
Over the years of number of deaths amongst men from cancer of
the lung has risen from a figure of 206 per million living in 1940 to 856 in
1959. The rate for women has increased even more steeply. 3,118