§ Dr. John Dunwoodyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what was the time lost from work last 31W year as a result of those conditions in which cigarette smoking is a significant causative factor.
§ Mr. EnnalsThe main conditions in which cigarette smoking is a significant causative factor are lung cancer, chronic bronchitis and coronary heart disease, especially in middle-aged people. No figures are available for absences from work due to lung cancer. In the year ended June, 1967, the latest for which I have information about sickness absence, 35 million days were lost through bronchitis, acute and chronic (the available information does not differentiate between acute and chronic forms of the disease). No separate figures are available for coronary heart disease, but 17 million days were lost through degenerative heart disease, a category which includes coronary heart disease.
These figures do not cover days lost through premature death. For men, I estimate that the current annual number of days lost on this account through lung cancer, bronchitis and coronary heart disease is of the order of 100 million. Similar calculations for all women (whether or not going out to work) give a total of some 25 million days lost.