The Nome daily nugget., 1937-12-01
TUBERCULOSIS THREATENING YOUNG MEN
(By Jessamine s. Whitney, Statistician National Tuberculosis
 Association.


 good thing!" But every one agrees that statisticians after all are necessary evils and we do contribute our bit to help solve various problems.
 One of these problems facing us today deals with the high death rate. Leading tuberculosis auth critics call tuberculosis the foe of youth" but it may well be call ed the foe of girls and young women. Deaths from this disease among them are one and half times as many as those among their brothers of the same age Moreover, ,one fourth of all deaths of young women are from tuber- culosis.
 The future of America depends to a large extent on saving these lives. The decline in the birth rate and the inevitable rise in the death rate in the next generation or two as the population ages, to- gether with the cessation of inn migration, will bring these two rates almost to level, that is, each year as many persons will die as are born, creating static or stationary population. Young women, the future mothers, must be spared from tuberculosis to fulfill their function if we are not to become a dying nation.
 Now, then, you ask, "Why is it that tuberculosis is so much more prevalent among young Women as amony young men? As a mat ter of fact, no one knows. Today that is an outstanding mystery of public health. Many people have wondered why. And they have rushed into the press and into the pulpit, too, with their specula- tions. And you have heard them over the air. Do you remember how they ranted about short skirts, and scanty clothing? And dieting? And do you remember how cgarette smoking, too, came in for its share of blame? A few laid the high mortality from tu- berculosis among youn women to the fact that the war opened the doors of industry to women. And nearly all took occusion to point finger at high school and college students and to raise an eyebrow at all extra curricular activities, including late hours and whoope in general. Now which of these was the real reason? None of them entirely. It was pure spec ulation.
 In an effort to obtain accurate facts which we hoped would help solve the mystery, the National Tuberculosis Association made a careful study of the life histories of all girls between the ages of 15 and 25 who died from tuber- culosis in single year in two of our largest cities. Detroit and l New York. AS the study was be- gun with no preconceived ideas of what might be found, we in- cluded every possible factor that had ever been considered to be a cause of tuberculosis. To our sur prise We found that most of the reasons usually given had to be discarded, as for example, the statement that industrialization of women in general affected their health. We found that 35 per cent had never been employ ed outside their homes, and 20 per cent more had been employed less than a year. Obviously, em ployment was not major cause of the high tuberculosis mortality among young women. Likewise, long distances to be travelled to work or school, the length of the working day and week, and low wages seemed to be negligible factors so far as this group was concerned.
 Dieting as cause of tuberculo- sis was given solar plexus blow by our data. Where the girl had dieted :. and such cases were few =. the usual ex- nlanati0n uyac Ncho diofoI L1, |