Day 023 - 13 Sep 94 - Page 09


     
     1        cigarettes a day, their risk of getting lung cancer is
     2        40-fold that of somebody who does not smoke, and the
     3        chances of somebody getting lung cancer in their lifetime
     4        will be no more than about a one in ten chance.
     5
     6   Q.   If they do not smoke?
     7        A.  If they do not smoke.  There are a number of cancers
     8        of the lung which are not related to cigarette smoking.
     9        There is a chance that people will get some forms of lung
    10        cancer.
    11
    12   Q.   Do those include occupational ones with occupational
    13        causes?
    14        A.  Occupational causes are nowadays relatively uncommon
    15        because those factors have been appreciated and largely
    16        removed.
    17
    18   Q.   They do unhappily still occur?
    19        A.  They do unfortunately, yes, particularly the asbestos
    20        related ones.
    21
    22   MS. STEEL:   In this pamphlet we were looking at yesterday,
    23        "Can You Avoid Cancer, A Guide to Reducing your Risks",
    24        I will put these figures to you -- I will not ask you to
    25        get it out -- and see whether you agree with it.  It says
    26        in here that, in terms of an individual's risk, the Royal
    27        College puts it like this:  "Among 1,000 young male adults
    28        in England and Wales who smoke cigarettes on average about
    29        250 will be killed before their time by tobacco".  Do you
    30        think that sounds reasonable or you do not know?
    31        A.  It probably is very reasonable.  That is talking about
    32        a 25 per cent incidence, but that is a lifetime risk.
    33        I am talking about 30,000 people a year dying out of a
    34        total population risk of something like 12 or 15 million
    35        possibly, so it seems about right.
    36
    37   Q.   Do you know of any studies which have shown causes other
    38        than diet -- causes might be, whatever -- do you know of
    39        any studies that have shown or linked any causes other
    40        than diet to explain why there are higher rates of certain
    41        cancers in the so-called developed countries?
    42        A.  If you look at breast cancer, for example, there are
    43        well known risk factors and these include -- we talked
    44        about these yesterday -- but they include the age at which
    45        you start to menstruate, the age at which you have your
    46        first child, the number of children you have and the age
    47        at which you have your menopause.
    48
    49        Now, whilst some of these may be related to diet in the
    50        sense of energy that one either has or is restricted from 
    51        having in childhood, such as the age at which you begin to 
    52        menstruate, that may be influenced by, for example, energy 
    53        deprivation as a child and could explain why the menarche
    54        or starting to menstruate occurs later in under-developed
    55        countries.
    56
    57        But things like the age at which you have your first child
    58        is not something that is going to be influenced by diet.
    59        That is a choice that somebody makes.  In developed
    60        countries there is a tendency to have children older

Prev Next Index