Show Piping Keeping Up 3 Wih den e 0 n erv e ep p Science Service W RYU 1 NU U Service Soot in ill City Air Seen as Possible i Cause of Cancer Tarry Deposits Injure Urban Dwellers' Dwellers Lungs NEW YORK Soot-laden Soot cit city air may be causing cancer of the thc lungs In the inhabitants of cities Conclusive evidence for this is lacking but strong circumstantial evidence is brought forward b by Dr MG Seelig and E. E L. L Benignus of the Barnard Free Skin and Cancer Cancer Can Cati- hospital St. St Louis in a re report report report re- re port to the American Journal of Cancer published here Human death records and animal studies furnish the evidence with which the St. St Louis scientists pin the guilt of causing cancer onto soot in the city ai air Figures from rom the United States Census bureau show that lung cancer can cancer cancer can can- deaths are more numerous in cities than in rural areas Soot Versus Death The relation between the greater number of deaths and the greater amount of soot in the air is close enough the scientists state to warrant warrant warrant war war- rant more activity on the part of public health authorities in the various various various va va- va- va rious smoke anti-smoke campaigns The tar In hi so soot t and the way soot invades all the structures of the lungs make it capable of causing cancer Tar itself has long been recognized as a causing cancer-causing sub sub- stance Chimney sweeps' sweeps cancer has been traced to the thc irritation produced by tar encountered In the course of this occupation Tar painted onto the skin of mice causes cancer Whether or not tar breathed Into the lungs with sooty air could cause cancer as ns the death statistics suggest suggest suggest sug sug- gest was the problem the St. St Louis scientists set out to solve Tests on Mice lUice For mice apparently it c can m and does which strengthens the assumption assumption tion that it does also in the case caser Hof of r man In a group of mice that lived In Ina Inn a n sooty atmosphere over a long period period period pe pe- of time eight out of a hundred hundred hun hun- dred developed lung cancer By contrast two out of a hundred developed developed developed de de- de- de lung cancer in a group that lived in fn a soot-free soot atmosphere |