§ 116. Dr. Strossasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works, as representing the Lord President of the Council, whether he has noted the correlation between the incidence of cancer of the lung and the density per acre of dwellings; and what research work is at present being carried out to determine the specific carcinogenic substances.
§ Mr. MolsonYes. I am aware of the observations published by Dr. Percy Stocks in the British Journal of Cancer. Further studies on the relationship between the occurrence of specific atmospheric carcinogens and the incidence of cancer of the lung are under discussion between the Departments concerned.
§ 117. Dr. Strossasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works, as representing the Lord President of the Council, whether his research Department are now able to state the approximate amount of arsenic benzpyrene and radioactive particles present in the atmosphere of an urban area such as Stoke-on-Trent, Stepney or Shoreditch, as compared with Torquay or Blackpool.
§ Mr. MolsonI am unable to give figures for the places named, but it has been shown in recent surveys carried out under the auspices of the Medical Research Council and the British Empire Cancer Campaign that the concentration of arsenic and of benzpyrene in the atmosphere of towns rises during the winter and that there is a tendency for the mean annual concentrations of these substances to increase with the size of town studied. Other investigations have shown that radioactivity of suspended matter in the air does not vary greatly between urban and rural districts.