The 1984 Association Lecture of the Hospital Physicists' Association. Man and his environment

Man has multiplied and become civilised by changing his environment to suit himself, especially by the development of agriculture. The near-elimination of infectious diseases among the young and middle-aged has increased the cancer death rates in Britain, which mainly affect the elderly, to 130 000 a year. A large proportion of cancers are initiated by environmental factors which should be discoverable and removable. Natural radon may be responsible for up to 400 cancer deaths annually and radiation from the nuclear industry for one or two more. An important number of cancers must be due to air pollution from the burning of coal and oil, which are also injuring the wildlife of the northern hemisphere and which, by increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air, may be changing the climate of the whole planet.