Title: ANTISMOKING CRUSADER SIR RICHARD DOLL
1ANTISMOKING CRUSADER SIR RICHARD DOLL
AUTHOR Dr. A. K. AVASARALA MBBS, M.D. PROFESSOR
HEAD DEPT OF COMMUNITY MEDICINE
EPIDEMIOLOGY PRATHIMA INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL
SCIENCES, KARIMNAGAR, A.P.. INDIA
91505417 avasarala_at_yahoo.com
2SIR RICHARD DOLL (October 28, 1912. TO July 24,
2005)
- Epidemiologist
- Activist
- Researcher
- Public health
- lobbyist
3SIR RICHARD DOLL
- 1912 Born in Hampton, England, on 28 October
- 1937 Graduated from St Thomas's Hospital Medical
School in London - 1939-45 Served in the Royal Army Medical Corps
- 1946 Started work at the Medical Research
Council - 1951 Co-authored a paper suggesting smoking
causes lung cancer - 1954 Co-authored a paper confirming the link
between smoking and lung cancer - 1956 Awarded an OBE
4GLOBAL RECOGNITION
- 1962 UN award for cancer research
- 1974 New York Academy of Science Presidential
Award - 1981 Bruce Medal, American College of Physicians
- 1983 Gold Medal, British Medical Association
- 1986 Royal Medal from the Royal Society
- 2000 Gold Medal from the European Cancer Society
- 2002 Norway's King Olaf V award for outstanding
work on cancer - BBC NEWSTUESDAY, 22 June, 2004
5WHAT ELSE CAN ANYBODY ACHIEVE
- Every human being wishes to become somebody but
not a nobody. - Sir Doll fulfilled his earthly mission by his
yeomen service to the people of the world through
his breakthrough research on ill effects of
smoking. - He did not stop there , he fought for that cause
selflessly in courts.
6HIS MIND
- Relatively speaking,
- I was always more interested in prevention than
in therapy. - DURING BBC INTERVIEW
7FAMILY BACKGROUND
- Richard Shaboe Doll was born in 1912 in Hampton,
the son of Henry Doll and William Amy Shaboe,
into a background of some affluence, despite his
fathers having had to abandon medical practice
because of multiple sclerosis. - Richard Doll married, in 1949, Joan Mary
Faulkner, also a doctor, who died in 2001
8EDUCATION
- He first went to Westminster and lost his chance
to go the Trinity College, Cambridge, after
bungling his mathematics scholarship exam, and
instead went to St Thomas's Hospital Medical
School. - Doll was educated at Westminster School and St
Thomass Hospital, from which he graduated in
1937.
9 BEGINNING OF HIS CAREER
- The war closely followed his membership of the
Royal College of Physicians, and his service in
the RAMC was spent largely as a medical
specialist on a hospital ship in the
Mediterranean, until he was found to have
tuberculosis. - After the war, Doll returned briefly to St
Thomass to research asthma, only to become
disillusioned.
10TURNING POINT (PROMPT FOR RESEARCH)
- His disillusionment drew him away from clinical
practice and towards a career in research. - Moving to the Central Middlesex County Hospital
in 1946, working in the emerging field of
epidemiology, he sought to find the causes of a
disease combining his knowledge of statistics
with his knowledge of Medicine.
11RESEARCH CAREER
- He joined Dr Francis Avery-Joness unit at the
Central Middlesex Hospital with an attachment to
Sir Austen Bradford-Hills statistical research
unit of the Medical Research Council.
12MAJOR ACHIEVEMENT
- SMOKING
- LUNG CANCER RESEARCH
13HIS GROUNDBREAKING RESEARCH 1950
- His 1950 study, which he wrote with Austin
Bradford Hill, showed - THAT SMOKING WAS "A CAUSE, AND A MAJOR
CAUSE" OF LUNG CANCER. -
14LUNG CANCER WORK
- After surveying lung cancer patients in 20 London
hospitals finding that smoking was the only thing
common to them, implicated smoking as the
overwhelming cause of lung cancer.
15FIRST FAMOUS REPORT 1950
- Sir Richard Doll authored his famous report in
1950 that claimed "the risk of developing the
disease increases in proportion to the amount
smoked" and concluded that it may be 50 times as
great among those who smoke 25 or more cigarettes
a day as among non-smokers".
16FAMOUS REPORT 1950( contd)
- The report was published in the British Medical
Journal in 1950, and helped bring awareness to
what many scientists today are still trying to
prove. - The report concluded ,"The risk of developing the
disease increases in proportion to the amount
smoked. It may be 50-times as great among those
who smoke 25 or more cigarettes a day as among
non-smokers." - They concluded that it was rare for a non-smoker
to suffer from the disease.
17BRITISH DOCTORS STUDY(1954)
- In 1954 a follow-up study showed prospective
mortality in a sample of 40,000 doctors, followed
over 20 years.
18FINAL FOLLOW-UP REPORT
- It concluded that men born between 1900 and
1930, who smoked only cigarettes and continued
smoking throughout their lives, died on average
about 10 years younger than lifelong non-smokers.
- Those who gave up at 60, 50, 40 or 30 improved
their life expectancy by, respectively, about
three, six, nine or 10 years
19(No Transcript)
20HIS LATER PRONOUNCEMENTS
- 1981 --Incidence of cancer of the lung by late
middle age is more than 10 times greater in
regular big smokers than in lifelong
non-smokers". - 1983--Two years later, as director of the
Imperial Cancer Research Fund Epidemiology Unit
at Oxford, Doll reported that smoking cigarettes
was responsible for 30 per cent of deaths from
cancer of all kinds
21HIS QUOTE ON SMOKING EFFECTS
- In 1991 he said "Young people say smoking cannot
be all that bad or the Government would never
allow it to be promoted in the way it does - I accept that millions of pounds are at stake,
but no price can be put on the misery and
suffering of smokers who die of cancer and of
their families and friends who are forced to
watch one of the most painful ways of dying."
22IMPACT OF DOLLS STUDY
- Change in the publics attitude to smoking was
slow coming. - Although cigarette commercials were banned from
British television in 1965 and from radio in
1971, billboards and newspapers were permitted to
carry advertising until February 2003.
23PUBLIC HEALTH IMPACT OF HIS STUDY
- In 1954, some 80 percent of British adults
smoked. - Half a century later, that figure was down to 26
percent, largely because of the fear of cancer
and other smoking-related diseases. - Hats off to Sir RICHARD DOLL
24PASSIVE SMOKING LUNG CANCER
- In 1986 Doll supported the findings of research
which suggested that lung cancer could also be
caused by "passive" smoking, - During the 1990s he was prominent in the campaign
to persuade the Government to ban tobacco
advertising.
25CONGRESS ASSENT
- It was only in 1981 finally that the Congress
accepted that "incidence of cancer of the lung by
late middle age is more than 10 times greater in
regular big smokers than in lifelong non-smokers".
26CONTINUOUS CRUSADING
- Doll, who later became director of the Imperial
Cancer Research Fund Epidemiology Unit at Oxford,
reported that cigarette smoking was responsible
for 30 per cent of deaths from cancer of all
kinds. - In 1986 he further extended his theories to
"passive" smoking, and campaigned in the 1990s to
persuade the Government to ban tobacco
advertising.
27COMMITTED PUBLIC HEALTH CRUSADER
- Always one to be involved with the public concern
of health, Doll's pronouncements often made the
headlines. - He appeared in court cases against companies that
were accused of public health offences and in
lobbies against government policies that
permitted companies to get away with health
damaging products.
28OTHER WORKS
29OTHER WORKS
- Alcohol increases risk for breast cancer
- Oral contraception
- Peptic ulcers and electrical power lines
- Aspirin protection against heart disease
- studying the early epidemiology of AIDS, even
calling for the introduction of widespread
confidential testing
30PEPTIC ULCER WORK
- WORK AT AVERY JONES UNIT HILLS STATITISTICAL
RESEARCH UNIT OF MRC PRESENTED PAPERS ON - DUODENAL ULCER - Stress strain not risk
factors for duodenal ulcer formation - CLINICAL TRIALS FOR THE TREATMENT OF GASTRIC
ULCER - showing the value of bed rest only in
the healing of gastric ulcer but not diet,
alkali, anticholinergic drugs and admission to
hospital
31CONTRACEPTIVE PILL.
- From the 1950s onwards Doll published a steady
stream of reports into both the causes of disease
and the side-effects of new medicines. - In 1968 he published a study on the side-effects
of the contraceptive pill. - This suggested that women taking the Pill faced a
nine to 10 times increased chance of developing a
blood clot in their legs, but dismissed
suggestions by some American researchers that the
Pill caused a cancer-like change in the cells of
women.
32CTSU ,OXFORD
- RESEARCH INTO CARCINOGENS.
- At CLINICAL TRIAL SERVICE UNIT (CTSU) of oxford
university , Doll and Richard Peto conducted
research - And concluded that environmental pollution might
amount to only 2 per cent of cancers worldwide
blaming tobacco, diet and infections for 75 per
cent of them.
33DOLLPETO
34DIET CANCERS
- He also suggested that the carcinogenic effects
of smoking could be affected by diet - Smokers who consumed above average levels of beta
carotene - a vitamin present in carrots - could
lower their risk of lung cancer by an estimated
40 per cent.
35ALCOHOL CANCERS
- Alcohol, on the other hand, was implicated as a
cause of cancer in upper respiratory and
digestive tracts - The adverse effect was far greater in smokers
because tobacco opened the way for alcohol to
attack. - He suggested that cancer deaths could be cut by
35 per cent by smokers regulating their food and
drink intake.
36HARMFUL EFFECTS OF NUCLEAR RADIATION.
- The harmful effects of nuclear radiation.
- The worldwide nuclear test ban treaty stemmed
partly from this work
37TEACHERS ROLE
- Alongside his work at the Medical Research
Council, Doll continued to teach. - For 20 years until 1969 he was an associate
physician at the Central Middlesex Hospital. - He was a lecturer at the London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for six years until
1962.
38GREEN COLLEGE AT OXFORD
- Regius Professor of Medicine in 1969 and
established single faculty medical college ,
Green college. - Doll enhanced Oxfords reputation for teaching
and research - When Doll retired from Green College in 1983 he
left a flourishing foundation and a happy society
whose increasing reputation owes much to the
guidance of its first warden and his wife, Dr
Joan Faulkner.
39HONOURS
- He was named an Officer of the Order of the
British Empire in 1956, - Was knighted in 1971 and
- In 1996 was made a Companion of Honor - a select
group limited to 65 persons at any one time - for
services of national importance.
40AWARDS
- Awarded Saudi Arabias King Faisal International
Prize for medicine for their continuing work on
smoking-related diseases. - Doll also held honorary degrees from 13
universities.
41 THE SAD DEMISE MONDAY, JULY 25, 2005 094505
AM
- LONDON Sir Richard Doll, the British scientist
who first established a link between smoking and
lung cancer, died today at age 92, Oxford
University said. - The epidemiologist, whose research was credited
with preventing millions of premature deaths,
died at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford
after a short illness, according to the
university, where Doll worked at its Imperial
Cancer Research Center. The exact cause of death
was not immediately released.
42May His soul rest in everlasting and eternal
peace.
- How does one mourn the passing of a giant?
- A legendary researcher and teacher who
inspired all the doctors who read his work, even
those who never heard or saw or met him?An
irreparable loss to Medicine, to Science, to
Humanity and verily, to this Earth.