Document DD8a4djVpjbej7v5Gbar40p64

FILE NAME Newspaper & Magazine Articles NMA DATE 1955 DOC NMA103 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION NYT - Cancer of Lungs Called Epidemic CANCER OF LUNGS CALLED EPIDEMIC By MURRAY ILLSONSpecial to The New York Times New York Times Current file Jun 3 1955 ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times 1851 - 2003 CANCER OF LUNGS CALLED EPIDEMIC Cases Up Fold in 25 Years Expert Tells Coast Forum -Uncertain on Smoking TREND IS HELD UPWARD Disease Declared to Be Most Common in City With Rise Far Greater Among Men By MURRAY ILLSON Special to The New York Times SAN FRANCISCO June 2 Lung cancer was declared here today to have become an epi- demic disease that still had not reached a peak The assertion was by Dr. Les- ter of Breslow chief of the Bureau Chronic Diseases California Department of Public Health He emphasized that he used the term epidemic because of the mounting incidence of lung can- cer and not necessarily to imply contagion Speaking at the second annual forum of the National Conference of Social Work he said that lung cancer was caus- ing more than 22,000 deaths a year in the country and that its frequency had more than quad- rupled in twenty years He added that it was causing more deaths than tuberculosis If this disease had increased in a period of twenty weeks instead of twenty years he observed consider the excite- ment that would have occurred The fact that an epidemic of cancer stretches out over years rather than weeks tends to dull our sensitivity to it Increase Declared Real Dr. Breslow contended that the increase in the disease could not be explained by citing that people were living longer and hence were more likely to de- velop it or that physicians were better able now to diagnose it thus increasing its incidence statistically The increase is real and sub- stantial he asserted The available evidence indi- cates is a he said disease that lung cancer of the environ- ment that it must be a re- flection of changes in man's living conditions Studies in the United States England and Den- mark all indicate he added that lung alent cancer is in urban much more prev- communities than in rural areas He declared that the evidence incriminates various tions He listed various occupamining operations smelting welding asbestos work painting metal fabrication and restaurant cook- ing and said that the disease had increased half times more rapidly among men than among women As for cigarette smoking as a possible factor the disease he in the increase of held that it does not explain all lung cancer Dr. Morton L. Levin assistant commissioner for medical serv- ices of the New York State De- partment of Health reviewed the evidence on smoking He said that some cases of lung cancer occurred in persons who had never smoked Known Evidence on Smoking He added that from what was known we can only point to the fact that cigarette smoking_is smoking_is one of the factors which influ- ences the occurrence of lung cancer that it most probably is not each the only person factor and must decide that for himself whether the indicated risk is worth Miss Jane the United taking Hoey States or not director Bureau of of Public Assistance in the Admin- istrations of Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Tru- man was the first recipient to- night Lasker of the 1,000 Florina Social Work Award Miss Hoey consultant to is the now research National Tu- berculosis Association in New York Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner Further reproduction prohibited without permission