LUNG CANCER CAUSES

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28178, 17 January 1957, Page 8

LUNG CANCER CAUSES

Cigarettes, Air Pollution

(New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN, January 16.

There were two types of lung cancer, said Sir Macfarlane Burnet, the world’s leading micro-biolo-gist and president of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science, which began its congress today. One was rare, the second has increased markedly over the last 50 years and was found seven times more frequently in men than in women.

The incidence of this type of cancer was sharply related to: (1) The intensity of cigarette smoking in the individual. (2) Whether the person lived in the country or the city.

The direct relation between cancer and cigarette smoking was now fully established and supported by a great deal of confirmatory evidence, he said, but it was a much more difficult matter to get people to change their habits than it was to persuade them to immunise their children against poliomyelitis. The prevention of this type of cancer rested in principle with getting rid of smoke pollution from the air and cigarette smoking.

Excessive smokers, having over 25 a day, were those particularly susceptible.

Coronary disease, which usually attacked professional and executive people in the 45 to 70 age group, was not caused by worry and stress as previously believed, said Sir Macfarlane Burnet. Fewer fats and fewer “smokes” were the prevention.