[Report 1965] / Medical Officer of Health, Jersey.

  • Jersey (Channel Islands). Council.
Date:
1965
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1965] / Medical Officer of Health, Jersey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/80 (page 8)
    The cancers. The number of deaths from cancer each year on this Island has not changed very much over the past decade. Cancer of the lung, which has doubled in the past io years, is now the most common form of cancer in Jersey and it is responsible for 33% of all deaths from cancer. In the female, cancer of the breast is the most lethal form of cancer causing seven times as many deaths as cancer of the cervix. In its early stages cancer can be cured and early detection offers the best chance of success. The two most important forms of female cancer—breast cancer and cancer of the cervix—are easily detectable; the first by self-examination and the second by microscopic examination of smears taken by a doctor. Examinations of this kind are already being arranged by some of the doctors practising in Jersey. It may, however, be necessary to augment these services by opening “ cervical smear ” clinics. Smoking—the annual warning. 59 residents of Jersey (47 men and 12 women) died from lung cancer in 1965. This is a 50% increase over our previous highest-ever figure of 40 deaths in 1964. For the past 8 years each Annual Report of this Department has contained a warning about the dangers of cigarette smoking and I make no apologies for harping on the subject again this year. In 1957, when the association between cigarette smoking and lung cancer was first brought to the attention of the public of this Island by the Medical Officer of Health in his Annual Report for that year, there were 30 deaths from that disease : 8 years (and 7 annual warnings) later the number of deaths has risen to 59—nearly double. History provides several well-known examples where the causes of cancer, when they became known, were removed from the environment and the cancers thus eliminated or very much reduced. Such cancers as mule-spinners cancer; chimney sweeps’ cancer; clay pipe cancer, and luminous dial painters’ cancer are seen no more because the causes of those cancers have been removed. Our most serious form of cancer to-day on this Island is cancer of the lung and we know that smoking is the most important factor in its causation. Yet we, and many other countries and nations throughout the world, stand helpless in the face of this preventable disease because its chief basic cause—smoking—is a socially accepted habit to which the majority of people are addicted. Faced by this majority in opposition there is little strong direct action that any Government can reasonably be expected to take to prevent or forbid smoking. In Jersey we should continue to give as much publicity as possible, through the various propa¬ ganda media, to the dangers of smoking so that eventually every person will know that cigarette smoking can cause such serious and lethal diseases as lung cancer, chronic bronchitis and heart disease. It will then be up to each person to decide for himself whether he wants to prejudice his health by smoking. At the same time we should also do all we can to discourage children from taking up this habit, which when acquired they may find so hard to break. Adult example at home, on the “ telly ” and on the street has, so far, been not on our side. Care of the aged. The last Census (1961) showed that there were more than 10,000 people living in Jersey who were over retirement age. This represents 16.5% of the population or 1 person in every 6. This proportion has, if anything, increased over the last 5 years and it will, without doubt, continue to increase in the future. Old age is one of the greatest challenges this Island faces to-day and the care and welfare of this senior section of the community must be accepted as one of the most important tasks which face us for the future.