A survey of air pollution and health effects was conducted by the Environment Agency in six communities of the Chiba, Osaka, and Fukuoka Prefectures. A cross-sectional survey was repeated each year beginning 1970 and running through 1974 to obtain data on the air pollution and health effects.
The major survey results were reported by JEA in 1977. This report publishes the major results and an interpretation of the results by the authors.
The survey subjects were about 400 women aged 30 years and over and about 100 men aged 60 years and over, randomly selected from each of the six communities. However, only results for women were discussed in this report. An average of 78.6% of the survey subjects were interviewed by means of the Japanese revision of British Medical Research Council's questionnaire and a respiratory function test (spirometry) was also performed on 84.4% to 38.3% of the survey subjects. The health examination was conducted in fall each year.
The degree of air pollution was measured for the eight kinds of air pollutants; SO2 (conductometric), SOx (sulfation rate by lead peroxide method), NO (Saltzman method), NO2 (Saltzman method), NOx(NO+NO2), CO (nondispersive infrared absorption method), suspended particulate matters (SPM, gravimetric high volume method) and dust fall (dust jar or deposit gauge method). The air quality monitoring station was located within the study area or within distance of 5 kilometers from the center of the study area. The air quality monitoring time was not long enough in the earlier half of the five year period, especially in the first year when the measurement was initiated in October-November.
