The purpose of this paper is to develop the human body surface model based on the heat transfer areas of the human body, which is necessary data for calculating heat exchange between the human body and its environment. Non-contacting three-dimensional digitizer was used for measuring the coordinate positions of the body surface, with the naked subject in the chair sitting positian. The general purpose human body surface model was comprised of 8,955 triangular polygons. To evaluate the model, the total surface area of a subject's body was measured directly. Then, the conductive heat transfer area, convective heat transfer area and radiative heat transfer area were measured for the same subject in the chair sitting position. The ratios of the conductive heat transfer area, convective heat transfer area and radiative heat transfer area to the total body surface area were as follows: Human model, 0.009, 0.902, 0.716; Human body, 0.008, 0.910, 0.732. It was clarified the difference of the heat transfer area between the human body and the model. It was verified that there was the difference in an applied range of engineering.

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A survey on thermal conditions of houses was carried out on 331 houses in 11 regions (Sapporo, Akita, Sendai, Chiba(north), Chiba(south), Shizuoka, Toyama, Osaka, Hiroshima, Fukuoka and Kagoshima) from December, 2004 to March, 2005. The air temperatures in the living room, bathroom, dressing room, toilet, corridor, bedroom and outdoor of houses were measured evety minute for 7 days. The water temperatures of bath during bathing were also recorded. The thermo-recorders which measured air temperatures at a height of 0.6-1.1m were kept out of the sun. The following results were obtained. (1) The room temperatures in Sapporo were kept above 15℃ in all rooms in winter. On the other hand, only living rooms were kept warm in the rest of regions. (2)The room temperatures in dressing rooms and/or corridors were vety low in all regions, except in Sapporo, (3)The mortality rate ofdrowninginthe 11 regions was correlated withthe room temperature in the dressing room.

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The object of this study was to determine BMI percentile values in Japanese children using the most recent national data and to examine trends in BMI over the last two decarles. The sample was obtained fiom nationwide surveys published by the Ministiy of Japan in 1984,1994, and 2004 with a class interval fiequency distribution of 1 kg in weight and 1 cm in height. BMI percentile values were calculated from weights and heights in the sample using the same percentile values for each sex-age group. Tukey mean-difference plots were used to investigate changes in the distribution of BMI in the last two decarles. The median BMI of sex-age groups in the 1994 data was higher than that in 1984 but similar to that in 2004. For all sex-age groups, the data was increasingly skewed with ashifitowanis the upperpart of the BMI distribution, as much as it has been in recent years; this tendency was marked from 1984 to 1994.We clarified that in Japanese children the BMI values in the high percentiles werehigherthan those in the low percentiles from 1984 to 1994.

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Recently, various environmental problems have been regularly reported or discussed in the Japanese mass media. Most people appear to be interested in such problems to some extent. The Ministiy of Environment promotes education as a means of encouraging individuals to act for the greater preservation of the earth's environment. Approximately 20-30 years has passed since environment-based study content, such as industrial pollution, was adopted into the junior high school curriculum. Other environmental issues have also been included as part of the syllabus over the past 15 years. People who studied environmental issues in school could be expected to have a greater consciousness of preservation and to act more sympathetically towards the sustainability of the planet in their daily lives. The authors attempted to verifi this hypothesis by surveying students and local citizens during the autumn of 2006. The main results were as follows: There were virtually no age-based differences found regarding knowledge of various environmental problems, with self-reported consciousness rates of over 90%. The only aspect in which age difference was apparent concerned the partial destruction of the ozone layer which was known by only 50% of 70 year-olds. Generally, females reported higher rates of environment-friendly behavior. Men who volunteered in environmental activities, however, were also environment-friendly. Our conclusion is that education has a major role in promoting awareness of these issues along with the need for more sympathetic lifestyles and greater participation in related volunteer activities.

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