[Report 1954] / Medical Officer of Health, Prestwich Borough.

  • Prestwich (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1954
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1954] / Medical Officer of Health, Prestwich Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/52 (page 3)
    Public Health Department, Town Hall, Prestwich, June, 1955. To His Worship the Mayor and all Members of the Council, I have the honour to present the Annual Report for the year 1954 on the health and sanitary conditions of the district. The population, according- to the Registrar General’s esti¬ mate, is now 33,830, which shows a slight decrease compared with last year. The *adjusted live birth rate is 13.1 per thousand of the population, and when allowance is made for persons in the Prest¬ wich Hospital, the adjusted rate becomes 14.3 per thousand. This rate is lower than the national rate, which is 15.2 per thousand. Similarly the adjusted death rate after making allowance for the hospital population is 10.6 per thousand compared with the national rate of 11.3. Again there was a marked preponderance of male deaths from cancer of the lung; 17 men died from this cause. There were no female deaths. Although satisfactory proof of the cause of cancer is not yet available, there are some obvious sources of irritant substances in the air we breathe, and it is amongst these that the cause may lie. Fumes from burning* cigarette paper and from tobacco itself, from our coal and coke fires and furnaces, and not least from the exhaust fumes of motor vehicles—all these may contribute their quota of damage to the delicate tissues of the lung. * “ adjusted ” means corrected to a standard population for the purpose of comparison with other districts.