Cancer: a long-range responsibility of business.

Abstract

ANCER IS A KILLER! That is a blunt fact known to virtually everyone. Many of the people in the medical world spend most of their working hours grappling with this sad, frustrating, persistent truth. Medical students are cautioned not to become emotionally involved in their patients' problems. But doctors are human-and they do become involved. The psychological and medical heartache that cancer brings to physicians in private practice is unmeasurable. One hardly need dwell on the cancercaused tragedies every medical man encounters. Because of them, research workers all over the world are devoting immense amounts of money, time and effort to the quest of the cause and a cure. But all of this is well known. What is perhaps less well known, however, is the growing concern with cancer in the field of industrial medicine. At Illinois Bell Telephone Company we regard it quite frankly as our number one longrange medical problem. And rightly so when you consider these statistics. Diseases of the heart and circulatory system take the biggest toll of lives in this country. Among Illinois Bell employees this is quite true. But cancer is the number two cause of death among our people-both active and retiredboth male and female. There may not be very much we can do about the heart-related deaths at this point, but there is an immense amount that we as a company can do to prevent many of the cancer deaths.