Modern Girls’ Pace of Life.

Southland Times, Issue 22074, 22 July 1933, Page 17

Modern Girls’ Pace of Life.

“The present-day young woman is definitely worse off than her mother in her fight against tuberculosis,” said Dr F. J. Bentley, Divisional Medical Officer of the London County Council, recently. He was addressing the Royal Institute of Public Health Congress at Eastbourne. “The mass of young girls in our cities to-day,” he said, “come from homes where the standard of life is still far from being good enough. The racket of modem life has tipped the scales of tuberculosis most heavily against young womanhood, always susceptible towards the disease. “The modem girl’s greater freedom has gone hand in hand with more office and shop life, more travel, and a general quickening of the pace. Life is too serious for these young women to indulge in slimming and smoking and cocktails, nor do they have so much time and money as to take them in excess to the dance hall and to the cinema. Nor would I say that flimsy garments are the cause of the problem.” Dr Bentley mentioned that 42 per cent of healthy girls apparently were smokers, while only 29 per cent, of the consumptives admitted smoking. The incidence cf the disease was greatest among girl clerks, and then came domestic servants, dressmakers and shop assistants. Between them these four groups accounted for 50 per cent of the disease among the young women of London.