Report Shows Ratio Of Smoking & Lung Cancer

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29766, 8 March 1962, Page 15

Report Shows Ratio Of Smoking & Lung Cancer

(N.Z.P .A.-Reuter —Copyright) LONDON, March 7. The death rate from lung cancer rises steeply with increasing consumption of cigarettes, the Royal College of Physicians said in a report today. The report also revealed that heavy cigarette smokers might have 30 times the death rate of non-smokers, and that cigarette smokers were much more affected than pipe or cigar smokers.

The report is the work of a nine-man medical committee set up by the Royal College of Physicians three years ago to inquire into smoking and air pollution in relation to lung cancer and other illnesses.

The committee was headed by the president of the Royal College, Sir Robert Platt Smoking is a cause of lung cancer, though there are other causes such as air pollution and substances met in a few occupations, the report said. “None of these is of such general importance as smoking.

“If the habit ceased, the number of deaths caused by lung cancer should fall steeply in the course of time. Those who give up smoking have a reduced death rate.” The report said that many doctors throughout England had given up smoking since the dangers of the habit became apparent. Only half of them now smoked at all

and less than a third smoked cigarettes. “The most reasonable conclusions from all the evidence on the association between smoking and disease are: that cigarette smoking is the most likely cause of the recent world-wide increase in deaths from lung cancer,” it said. The report also said that the death rate from lung cancer was at present higher in England than in any other country in the world. The report said besides being a cause of lung cancer smoking could cause bronchitis. It might contribute to the development of pulmonary tuberculosis, especially in the middle-aged and elderly. Coronary heart disease was a more frequent cause of death in smokers, particularly cigarette smokers, than in non-smokers. Smoking appeared to play a part in causing arterial disease but not high blood pressure. It also delayed healing of gastric and duodenal ulcers.

Three-quarters of the men, and half the women in Britain smoked. The men smokers consumed an average of 10 daily and women 11. Many more heavy smokers and fewer light smokers were men than women.

Pipe smoking was confined to men, predominantly those over the age of 60. According to the report, the chance of dying in the next 10 years for a man aged 35 who is a heavy cigarette smoker is one in 23, whereas

the risk for a non-smoker is only one in 90. Only 15 per cent, (one in six) of men of this age who are non-smokers but 33 per cent, (one in three) of heavy smokers will die before the age of 65.

The total risk of dying of lung cancer for a smoker of 25 or more cigarettes a day is one in 14 between the ages of 35 and 74, and one in nine between the ages of 35 and 84. But, the report said, not all the difference in expectation of life “is attributable to smoking.” Need For Reduction

"There can be no question of prohibiting a habit which most smokers enjoy without injury to their health.” the report said. “But the amount of ill-health and shortening of life attributable to smoking is now so great that means must be sought to reduce the vast and increasing prevalence of the habit.

“At present both social custom and commercial pressure outbid the voice of caution and the balance must be redressed."

Of smoking among children, the report said that in general 11 to 15 per cent, of boys, not infrequently with parental consent, or even encouragement, were already smoking a few cigarettes by the age of 10. Schoolboys showed a steady recruitment to smoking, with a sharp rise at the schoolleaving age of 15, till at the age of 20 adult habits were established. Girls smoked less often, but by the age of 15 about 15 per cent., and by the age of 20, about 40 per cent., smoked regularly. Advertising Aims

The report noted a shift in the type and aims of cigarette advertising with “romantic allusions” giving the appearance of being addressed increasingly “to young people not yet addicted to the smoking habit.” Some evidence of concern

by the Government was needed to convince the public about the harmful effects of smoking on health. But while the tobacco manufacturers spent £38,000,000 on advertising during the period 1956-60, less than £5OOO was spent on antismoking propaganda in the same period. Decisive steps urged on the Government included more education of the public, especially children, concerning smoking hazards, more effective restrictions on tobacco sales to children and restrictions of tobacco advertising. The committee also urged the Government to enforce wider restriction of smoking in public places, to inform purchasers of the tar and nicotine content of cigarette smoke, to investigate the possibility of anti-smoking clinics run by the Government on the lines of Alcoholics Anonymous and an increase of tax on cigarettes.