Since the mid-1990s, there has been a steady decline in coverage rates for cervical screening in the target age group (25-64 years) across England. This article describes the rate of decline from 1995 to 2005 in the old health authority areas of the North East and the Yorkshire and the Humber (NEYH) regions in relation to age group, deprivation, ethnicity and religion. The results show that the rate of decline is faster in these northern regions than that in England as a whole, with a very strong correlation between age and rate of change of coverage rates. Younger age groups experience the fastest rate of decline, and those over 55 years show an increase in coverage rates. There is an association between the deprivation of the old health authority areas and the rate of change of coverage rates, with weaker evidence that areas with high proportions of Black or Mixed ethnicity may have a faster decline. However, the rate of decline is not associated with other ethnic groups or religions. Therefore, interventions could be targeted at younger women and those who live in deprived areas to prevent the widening of inequalities.

Reporting rates for glandular neoplasia in 464,754 cervical samples reported at six laboratories in 12-month periods before and after the implementation of Surepath™ LBC processing are compared. The introduction of LBC processing is seen to have resulted in a significant (P = 0.001) increase in the detection rate for endocervical glandular neoplasia (from 2.2 per 10,000 tests to 3.9 per 10,000) while maintaining high levels of reporting specificity. An observed fall in the number of samples reported as showing borderline glandular neoplasia falls short of statistical significance, and the reporting of possible endometrial and 'other' glandular abnormalities appears to be unaffected. The underlying reasons for the observed improvement in detection of endocervical glandular neoplasia are discussed.

Current monitoring shows constant uptake over time, but when looking at a cohort of individual woman, a much larger percentage have 'ever' attended and a smaller number have attended all invitations. The chance of a woman being assessed at all, if she attends all four rounds, is 12.3%, which can be calculated by summating the recall rates in each round.

During the three years 1967-69, 781 cases of squamous cell carcinoma of the skin were reported to the Manchester Regional Cancer Registry. The proportions of males to females were significantly different (p < 0 001) among the skin cancer sites. The age-specific incidence rates were significantly different (p < 0-001) between the sexes for the five-year age groups of 55 years and above. Full occupational histories were obtained on 598 (77 %) patients; a further 148 (19 %) patients gave one main occupation only, while the remaining 35 (4 %) patients were untraced. The numbers of patients observed in broad occupational groups (occupational orders) were compared with the numbers expected using the 1931 and 1951 censuses. For all skin cancer sites combined the occupations of farming and textiles were found to have highly significant excesses of 1500% and 13500 respectively for males. The corresponding excesses for females were 300% for textile workers and varied from 1140 % to 590 % for farmers, but only for the farmers were the excesses highly significant. For males the occupation of metal worker also showed excesses of 38 % and 23 % which were of borderline significance. The association between occupation and individual skin cancer sites was then considered. For males there were excesses in the arm for the occupational orders of chemical workers, paper/printing workers and fishermen, and in the ears for builders, but these excesses were of borderline significance. There was a significant difference (p < 0-05) in the proportion of male patients with atopic skin conditions in each cancer site. However, this was not found for the female patients. For both male and female patients no significant associations were found between the skin site and either eye colour, residence in the tropics or smoking habit.A review of scrotal cancer in Scotland in 1967(Lloyd Davies, 1970 showed that, of the 18 confirmed cases from the Hospital Inpatient Index, only 12 were probably of occupational origin. A morbidity study by Lee et al. (1972) found that, of 89 cases of scrotal cancer, 84 were probably of occupational origin. The occupations at risk have been shown to be textile workers, in particular mule spinners, and metal workers, in particular automatic lathe operators. Occupations possibly at risk are road workers, dye workers, chain makers and 'Stanford jointers' (Henry, 1946;Cruickshank and Squire, 1950;Spink et al., 1964;Lee et al., 1972). Because scrotal cancer may be regarded as one specific site of skin cancer the questions arise,

(1974) found a 77% excess of deaths from oral and pharyngeal cancers in male textile workers compared with the male population of England and Wales. This finding was based on the 31 deaths from oral and pharyngeal cancer of male textile workers aged 15-64 yr in 1959-63. Using this group, together with further data, they also showed that the excess appeared to be greatest in wool-fibre preparers. However, they advised caution about this conclusion which was based on a single set of numerators and compared with various denominators, adding that information on the mortality of female textile workers and on morbidity in both sexes was incomplete.For these reasons the present morbidity surveys were undertaken for both males and females covering the two main textile regions of England and Wales. The regions are the North-west and West Yorkshire where, during the relevant period of exposure, the textile industry was based mainly