[Report 1967] / Medical Officer of Health, Watford U.D.C. / Borough.

  • Watford (England). Urban District Council.
Date:
1967
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1967] / Medical Officer of Health, Watford U.D.C. / Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/68 (page 16)
    LUNG CANCER, OTHER CANCER, CEREBRO-VASCULAR DISEASE CARDIO VASCULAR DISEASE AND OTHER CARDIAC DISEASE WATFORD AND ENGLAND AND WALES 1950 - 67 The following table may be of interest as permitting a comparison to be made for these statistics between Watford and England and Wales. The lung cancer death rate for both England and Wales and Watford rose steadily over the period and was twice as high at the end of the period as it had been at the beginning. On the other hand, the death rate for other cancer for both England and Wales and Watford remained remarkably steady over the period. If cancer is due to hereditary susceptibility and is activated by environmental influences, it is suggested that the environmental influences have remained constant for other cancer but have changed for lung cancer and the most obvious influence is increased consumption of tobacco. The chance of dying of other cancer is one in six. The chance of lung cancer is one in twenty. Almost all of the deaths from lung cancer occur among the part of the population that smokes a medium or large amount. So while the chance of dying of all cancer among the part of the population that does not smoke, or that smokes a small amount, is one in six, the chance among the part of tfye population that smokes a medium or a large amount is one in four. The death rate for cerebro vascular disease for both England and Wales and Watford remained almost stationary over the period. The death rate for cardio vascular disease for both England and Wales and Watford rose steadily over the period, but the death rate for other cardiac disease for both England and Wales and Watford fell steadily over the period, and taking the two together for both England and Wales and Watford they remained almost stationary over the period. There is no obvious reason why the death rate for other cardiac diseases should have fallen and it is suggested that the increase in the death rate for cardio vascular disease is as much a change in the practice of diagnosis as a true increase, deaths which used to be certified as due to myocardial degeneration now being certified as due to coronary disease.