Bad news for Chch smokers

Press, 23 August 1977, Page 6

Bad news for Chch smokers

PA Auckland Male cigarette smokers living in Christchurch could face a far greater risk of lung cancer than those living in Auckland. A Swedish expert on environmental pollution, Professor L. T. Friberg, who spoke last evening on the connection between lung cancer and the combination of cigarette smoking and air pollution, said he was concerned about the high level of pollution in Christchurch.

Dr Friberg was commenting on slides shown at the Auckland University School of Medicine by the chemist at the Auckland Environment Laboratory, Dr B. W. L. Graham. The slides illustrated the serious pollution problem Christchurch had in the winter, largely from domestic fires.

There was a drastic difference between smoke

levels in Auckland and Christchurch taken in the mid-year period, Dr Graham said.

Professor Friberg said that at a recent symposium iu Stockholm it was calculated that in a large urban area, five to 10 cigarette-smoking males in 100,000 would get lung cancer related to air pollution each year. Professor Friberg said that there were higher rates of lung cancer in urban areas than in rural areas.

There was not enough information available to conclude that the higher rate was caused by the higher rate of air pollution in the urban areas. But it was clear, Professor Friberg said, that certain chemicals in the air from the burning of fossil fuels, combined with cigarette smoking, caused lung cancer.