It is a fact that millions of people around the world (except perhaps for a few who work for the tobacco industry) take for granted: smoking causes cancer. The scientist who first confirmed that link, Sir Richard Doll, has died at the age of 92 after a short illness.
It was back in 1950 when Doll and his partner, Austin Bradford Hill, published their ground breaking study that determined that smoking was 'a major cause' of lung cancer.'
Dr. John Hood, Vice Chancellor of Oxford University said that Doll's work had saved millions of lives over the years.
'Sir Richard's enormous contribution to medicine globally, and within Oxford, cannot be understated,' Hood told the BBC. 'His pioneering epidemiological work on the link between smoking and cancer, cardiovascular disease and many other disorders, has led to the dramatic reduction in smoking rates in Britain over the past 50 years, especially among men.'
Medical Research Council Chief Executive, Professor Colin Blakemore said: 'Professor Sir Richard Doll was one of the most important medical scientists of the 20th century. His proof of the link between smoking and cancer has done as much to save lives as the discovery of penicillin or the development of polio vaccine.'
Doll was born in London in 1912. He attended St. Thomas's Medical School in 1937 and saw service with the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War II. He was married and had one son and one daughter.
While working for the Medical Research Council, Doll was asked to discover why there was a large increase in lung cancer cases. Initially, Doll theorized that car exhaust fumes were the culprit. He handed out questionnaires to 600 patients at various London hospitals and the results came back conclusively as cigarette smoking. A later study showed that the risk of lung cancer was directly proportional to the number of cigarettes smoked by the patient.
Doll was knighted in 1972 and was given an award of $10,000 by the World Health Organization.
Doll later investigated into alcohol on unborn children and the side effect of the birth control pill.
As a result of Doll's work, the number of smokers in Great Britain and worldwide has been reduced. That is something Sir Richard always took pride in.
