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To the Editor:—
Apropos of the editorial comment in The Journal November 25 (p. 838) I have tried to obtain data on the possible contribution of oil burner fumes to cancer of the lung. It seems unquestionable that such form of cancer is increased, leaving, of course, aside the old question of Bloodgood as to whether better diagnosis is involved, but the significant rise in such diagnoses invites one to try to correlate such factors as newer sources of carcinogenic materials. The suggestion that tar used on the highways has been an ever increasing source of such substances is scarcely valid for two reasons: (1) the use of tar is decreasing each year; (2) increase in lung cancer has occurred among Canadians living far from roads on which tar is used. Whether any one has given attention to oil burner fumes, poured in immense amounts into our atmosphere, is the