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CHIGWELL URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL
To the Chairman and Members of the Chigwell Urban
District Council
THE CHAIRMAN, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
I have pleasure in presenting to you the Annual Report including
the report of the Chief Public Health Inspector for the
year ending 31st December, 1957.
VITAL STATISTICS
The fall in the birth rate continued, and at 11.7 per 1,000 of
the population (after correction for differences in the age distribution
of the District from the national average) remained
well below the average rate for England and Wales (16.1).
There was a small increase in the death rate, due mainly to
coronary disease, vascular diseases of the nervous system and
cancer of the lung and bronchus—although deaths from cancer
of other sites were less.
At the request of the Ministry of Health, the attention of the
Council has been drawn to the Medical Research Council's
statement on the causal relationship between the smoking of
tobacco and lung cancer. I have advised the Council that although
the alleged causal relationship is still controversial, it
would be wrong to keep silent pending more conclusive
evidence on the matter. On this basis, the Council authorised
me to warn the public by means of posters and through the
medium of the press that there are very strong reasons for
believing that smokers—particularly of cigarettes—run a greater
risk of lung cancer than non-smokers. Certainly, this is again
borne out this year by local experience as the Chest Physician
at St. Margaret's Hospital, Epping (Dr. I. V. Lutwyche) reports:
"of the 12 cases of lung cancer diagnosed in 1957—
1 habitually smoked 60 cigarettes daily
3 habitually smoked 40 cigarettes daily
2 habitually smoked 30 cigarettes daily
2 habitually smoked 20 cigarettes daily
2 habitually smoked 15 cigarettes daily
1 was a pipe smoker (quantity not known).
1 no information available
12 Total.
INFECTIOUS DISEASES
There was a mild outbreak of measles in the Spring. In November,
the epidemic of influenza which had been spreading
2