Sir Richard Doll, 92, Dies

Epidemiologist and former Regious Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, Sir Richard Doll died yesterday at the age of 92. Professor Doll, along with Professor Austin Bradford Hill,quit smoking now, were the first to discover the link between smoking and lung cancer following a survey of lung cancer patients in 20 London hospitals. The survey, published in the British Medical Journal in 1950, determined smoking was the only factor overwhelming implicated in lung cancer. The report found that lung cancer was rare in nonsmokers. "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."This groundbreaking research was also the first to link smoking to emphysema and heart disease as well as lung cancer. Due to the findings of the study, Professor Doll himself stopped smoking cigarettes. Read more about Professor Sir Richard Doll.