The Causes of Death among Gas-workers with Special Reference to Cancer of the Lung

Gas-workers are known to be specially liable to develop cancer of the skin and bladder (Henry, Kennaway, and Kennaway, 1931) and it has been suggested that they also suffer an unduly high mortality from cancer of the lung (Kennaway and Kennaway, 1947). The latter suggestion is based on an analysis of male deaths certified as being due to cancer of the lung in England and Wales during the period 1921-38. Fifty-six occupations were studied, including seven groups of gas-workers. The number of deaths attributed to cancer of the lung was greater, in each of the seven groups, than the number expected from the experience of the total and the excess varied from 29% to as much as 184%. Such evidence is strongly suggestive of a special occupational risk. It is not conclusive, because the numbers of men engaged in the various occupations had to be deduced from the evidence provided by the censuses of 1921 and 1931 and were not known with any certainty after the latter date. Further evidence has, therefore, been sought.