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The Head Teachers then invited me to several schools and I
gave the same lecture to all the staff, with the intention of letting
them know what was in my mind and what I intended to put over to
the pupils. That phase ended about a year ago.
The second phase was to choose certain schools in Ilford and
conduct a health education programme based on scientific principles.
At the moment two schools are involved— Fairlop Secondary Boys
and Mayfield Secondary Boys. In these schools the pupils have been
divided into two groups. One group is having health education on
dust in general, and cancer in particular, and the other is having no
such health education. The boys are asked to fill in questionnaires
each term and at the end of five years we hope to analyse these
questionnaires to find out whether this sort of publicity is of any
use. In these two schools 1 lecture to each group once a term and
this involves giving about ten lectures.
I hope to include the two grammar schools— Beal and the
Ilford County High- in the near future but the main difficulty is that
with a campaign of this sort it does mean that a lot of my time is
taken up with it, and for the purpose of this experiment I do not
intend to include any other schools. There will be nothing more to
report on this particular experiment until five years have elapsed."
Smoking and Lung Cancer
Dr. D. J. Gordon-Smith reports as follows:-
"Perhaps one of the most effective methods of educating young
people regarding the dangers of lung cancer is the personal interview
at the time of the routine medical inspection. Medical Officers of
Health should make it a particular duty to emphasise these dangers,
and to hand out a leaflet to reinforce the message.
During the past few months several hundred such leaflets have
been distributed at the time of school inspections.
The topic of lung cancer has also been included in the syllabus
of lectures which are being provided for secondary schools. So far
this has only been done at Becontree Secondary Modern School,
where approximately 40 pupils have been addressed, but in the next
six months a much wider audience will be spoken to."