Richard Doll

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Richard Doll (2002)

Sir William Richard Shaboe Doll (born October 28, 1912 in Hampton , Great Britain , † July 24, 2005 in Oxford ) was a British researcher who was one of the first to discover a connection between smoking and lung cancer .

Life

Doll studied medicine in London and graduated in 1937. From 1939 to 1945 he was a doctor for the British forces in World War II. After the end of the war he found a position in medical research in 1946. Richard Doll and Austin Bradford Hill showed in a scientific study as early as 1950 that smoking was "a cause, an important cause" of lung cancer.

Other researchers had previously recognized similar results. An American study in 1928 came to the conclusion that non-smokers live longer. A life as an enlightener appeared in Germany in 1929 ... Tobacco and Organism - Handbook of the entire tobacco industry by Fritz Lickint , in which he indicated the dangers of tobacco smoking. The Cologne doctor Franz Hermann Müller published a more extensive study in 1939, but this was not known internationally in the shadow of the Nazi crimes and was forgotten. Incidentally, under National Socialism, smoking was increasingly prohibited due to the health consequences. At the end of the 1930s, smoking was banned in parts of the army, the post office and pregnant women. A general smoking ban for women in public and for young people (under 18 years of age) was added later.

In 1969, Doll received a call to the " Regius Professorship for Medicine " at the Clinical Trial Service Unit (CTSU) at the University of Oxford . Doll researched here at the Royal Cancer Research Center until his death.

Doll published a follow-up study in 2004 that showed that half and perhaps up to two thirds of people who start smoking die from it.

Doll's work has prevented millions of premature deaths in the past century and will prevent many millions in this century , said Alex Markham , who has worked with Doll for more than 30 years. It was unique in medical history.

In 1970 Doll received a Gairdner Foundation International Award . In 1971 he was beaten to a Knight Bachelor degree by the Queen . In 1972 Doll was awarded the Buchanan Medal of the Royal Society . In 1979 he received the Charles S. Mott Prize and in 1986 the Royal Medal of the Royal Society. In 2005 he was honored with the Shaw Prize . He was a member of the Royal Society (since 1966), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (since 1977) and the National Academy of Sciences (since 2001).

However, an article published in December 2006 sheds a slightly different light on his life's work. He reveals that Richard Doll was on the Monsanto Group's payroll for years, including certifying Agent Orange's harmlessness . He was also paid by other chemical companies for examinations that, for example, agreed that vinyl chloride was linked to cancer.

The Richard Doll Prize in Epidemiology , which was first awarded in 2008, is named after him.

swell

  1. ↑ S. Boseley: Renowned cancer scientist what paid by chemical firm for 20 years. In: The Guardian, December 8, 2006
  2. ^ R. Metzger $ 1,500 - daily and secretly. In: TAZ of December 9, 2006

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Doll, Richard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Doll, William Richard Shaboe (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British cancer researcher
DATE OF BIRTH October 28, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Hampton , UK
DATE OF DEATH July 24, 2005
Place of death Oxford