SMOKE CAUSES CANCER?

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 November 1934, Page 4

SMOKE CAUSES CANCER?

LONDON DOCTOR’S INQUIRY That the irritant qualities of tarry matter which smoke contains may be a cause of cancer was suggested by Dr. H. A. des Voeux (physician and surgeon, of St. George’s and West London Hospitals) in his presidential address to the National Smoke Abatement Society at Glasgow recently. “Can we attribute cancer to a smoke-laden atmosphere?” he asked. “It is known that tar can produce this disease—this is a proved fact. “The chemists have now isolated the element in tar which can do it, and I should not be surprised if, before many years have passed, further proof of the connection of tar and cancer will be forthcoming. Why has cancer of the lung, from being an uncommon disease, become a not infrequent one?” Fogs were a prolific cause of bronchitis and consequent heart disease which produced 37 per cent, of the deaths in this country. Darkness from the blotting out of sunlight by smoke was one of the chief causes of rickets which crippled children. In these conditions also lay an ancillary cause of tuberculosis. “Quite certainly,” Dr. des Voeux added, “it is almost impossible to cure tuberculosis without the assistance of clean air and sunshine.”

CROYDON AERODROME FUTURE.

How airmen are troubled by drifting smoke was described by Mr. Oliver Cochran, secretary of the Scottish Flying Club. Smoke, he said, was carried long distances and in sufficient quantities to affect visibility. On many occasions flying at Renfrew had been brought almost to a standstill through smoke haze drifting from Glasgow. In view of the directions in which wind was most frequent, the normal situation for an aerodrome in this country would be to west or southwest of a town.

Manchester’s municipal aerodrome at Barton, on the north-west side of the city, on which about <£160,000 had been spent, had been condemned by the Air Ministry on account of the abnormally large number of days on which it was fog-bound. The Corporation had recently decided to expend a further £170,000 on a new aerodrome on the south-West side. “It is quite possible,” he added, “that in the not too distant future Croydon Aerodrome, on which untold wealth has been lavished, may have to be abandoned on similar grounds in favour of a new aerodrome further south.”