The prevalences of methamphetamine and organic solvent abuses are most serious social problems concerning drug abuse in Japan, and such prevalences tend to progressively extend in spite of a strong legal regulation. The drug abuses are not only problems connected with gangstar and juvenile delinquent groups, but also based on a common mechanism to our daily habits, such as drinking alcohol and tea, and smoking cigaretts, i.e., self-administraion of dependence-producing drugs. All of the dependence-producing drugs usually show psychotropic effects, and the effects frequently elicit an euphoria, which becomes a reinforcing effect of drug-taking behavior. The problems of drug abuse/dependence are not only drug-taking behavior itself, but also the psychotoxic effects of these drugs. Amphetamines, cocaine, organic solvents etc. show a strong psychotoxic effect, and easily elicit paranoid-hallucinative schizophrenia-like symptoms. The effect is enhanced by repeated administration of these drugs, i.e., development of reverse tolerance. The reverse tolerance to the psychotoxic effect once produced persists for a long period, and frequently causes the acute exacerbation of schizophrenia-like symptoms. The development of tolerance to the euphorogenic effect of drugs results in an increase in the dose, frequency and number of the drug abuse, and simultaneously accelerates development of reverse tolerance to the psychotoxic effect. In this review, we will discuss drug-abuse problems from the social and pharmacological viewpoints.

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From the viewpoints of behavioral pharmacology, abused drugs are classified as narcotics, analgetics, stimulants and hallucinogens. At present, most common abused drugs in Japan are methamphetamine (a CNS stimulant) and volatile solvents. Abuse of narcotics rarely comes to attention. The characteristic symptoms of acute methamphetamine intoxicution are restlessness, irritability, insomnia, anorexia and panic reaction with slight conciousness disturbance. Methamphetamine psychosis caused by chronic abuse shows the symptoms varying from transient hallucinatory delusional states which are of brief duration, to a more prolonged states closely mimicking schizophrenia. The contents of delusions are often related to the illicit nature of the patient's drug use on persecution by the detective and sometimes the delusions relapse after the symptom free period (reverse tolerance). The total number of the persons in custody for illegality in 1983 were 23635. The inhalation of volatile solvents is usually a group activity predominatly of boys aged 14-18. Habitual abusers of the solvents (thinner) develop marked tolerance. The harmful effects arise from intoxicated behavior and there is a risk of sudden death from anoxia due to lack of oxygen. Chronic abuse of solvents produces amotivational syndrome and at times hallucinosis. Epidemiologically the biginning of solvent abuse in Japan went back to 1968 and the prevalence still continues without stopping. Drug abuse is the product of an extra-ordinary complex interaction between drug (the agent) and man (the host) and his community (the environment). Drug abuse is essentially a biopsychosocial rather than a medical affair and so we should manipulate multidemensional approach to treat the abusers.

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Methods for the qualitative analysis and determination of antimicrobial agents in fabrics are described. At present, antimicrobial agents mainly used are 2, 4, 4'-trichloro-2'-hydroxydiphenyl ether (Irgasan DP300), 3-(trimethoxysilyl) propyldimethyloctadecyl ammonium chloride (DC5700) and thiabendazole (TBZ). The procedure of qualitative analysis is as follows : (1) DC-5700 in fabrics is checked by the adsorption of bromophenol blue (BPB) on the strips packed in column. (2) Irgasan DP300 eluted with ether from fabrics is detected by Gibbs reagent on silica gel thin layer chromatography (TLC). (3) TBZ is eluted with methanol from the fabrics after the ether-elution and detected by UV 254 nm after spraying sulfuric acid on silica gel TLC. DC-5700 is determined from the amount of 1-octadecene, formed in Hofmann degradation, measured by gas-liquid chromatography (GLC). The determination of Irgasan DP300 in fabrics is carried out by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on the acidic fraction of extract with methanol : acetic acid (9 : 1) under reflux and TBZ is determined by GLC on the alkaline fraction of the abovementioned extract. By using the qualitative and quantitative system, Irgasan DP300, DC-5700 and TBZ were detected in 12, 4 and 2 samples, respectively, of 23 commercial fabrics treated with antimicrobial agents.

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Paraquat was directly determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a UV detector using a reversed phase column packed with Nucleosil ₅C₁₈ (4.0 mm×0.15 m) and an ionpairing reagent in the mobile phase. Mobile phase consisted of 0.0075 M sodium 1-hexanesulfonate and 0.06 M sodium perchlorate in 15% methanol-water ; the pH was adjusted to 2.2 with phosphoric acid. Vanillic acid was used as an internal standard. The blood sample was mixed with equal volume of vanillic acid solution and a tenth part of acetic acid to the blood to prevent the choke of the column. After centrifugation, the supernatant was injected to HPLC. Recovery of paraquat obtained from the blood spiked at 50 μg/ml was 106.7±2.5%.

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After various cooking treatments (washing, boiling, frying, baking etc.) of food samples, which had been prepared by dipping Chinese cabbage, potato, green peas and carrot in solutions containing 12 kinds of pesticides, the remaining pesticides were determined and the results were compared with those in filter paper samples reported previously. In most samples, the remaining percentage in food samples was less than that in paper samples. The correlation of behaviors of the pesticides between both samples was tested with respect to each pesticide or treatment. Among pesticides, 13 pairs in all of 23 pairs were estimated to be correlated significantly, and among treatments, the values after washing with water, washing with detergent and boiling, were found to be significantly correlated. As a screening test to consider the behavior of pesticides in foods during cooking treatments, filter paper might be applicable as food substitute in certain pesticides or treatments.

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A successful method was developed for the determination of trace amounts of methylmercury in environmental samples, particularly in sediments by gas-liquid chromatography (GLC). A sample of known weight was treated with ethanolic potassium hydroxide solution and extracted with dithizone-benzene solution after slightly acidification with hydrochloric acid. The methylmercury dithizonate in benzene layer was partitioned into a small portion of sodium sulfide in aqueous ethanol as bismethylmercury sulfide. The excess of sulfide ions was removed by bubbling air through the solution slightly acidified with hydrochloric acid, and then methylmercury in the solution was re-extracted into dithizone-benzene solution as methylmercuric dithizonate. Methylmercury thus obtained was measured by ECD-GLC with a column of 5% diethylene glycol succinate and 5% sodium chloride on chromosorb W. The recovery of methylmercury added to river sediments was 95.7% on the average and the detection limit was 0.5 ppb as mercury on a wet weight basis in the present method. This method was also applicable to the analyses of methylmercury in other environmental samples such as natural water, fish, etc.

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An isocratic high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method by using ion pair partition system was established for the simultaneous determination of saccharine (SA), sorbic acid (SOA), benzoic acid (BA) and five esters of p-hydroxybenzoic acid (PHBA) such as ethyl (PHBA-Et), isopropyl (PHBA-isoPr), n-propyl (PHBA-n-Pr), isobutyl (PHBA-isoBu) and n-butyl p-hydroxybenzoate (PHBA-n-Bu) in liquid foods. Liquid foods such as soy sauce, soft drinks and lactic acid bacteria beverages were pretreated with SEP-PAK C₁₈ cartridge prior to HPLC analysis. SA, SOA, BA and the esters of PHBA could be separated within 30 min on a reverse phase column, Zorbax C₈, with the eluent, ethanol-0.05 M sodium dihydrogenphosphate (34 : 66) containing 2 mM cetyltrimethylammonium chloride, adjusted to pH 4.4. The eluate was monitored at 240 nm. Recoveries of SA, SOA, BA, PHBA-Et, PHBA-isoPr, PHBA-n-Pr, PHBA-isoBu and PHBA-n-Bu from liquid foods were 98.0-101.1%, 95.8-100.2%, 97.0-100.8%, 98.0-99.4%, 97.6-100.5%, 95.2-99.8%, 98.8-101.5% and 95.0-101.4%, respectively. Their detection limits were 5 mg/kg, except 10 mg/kg for SA and 1 mg/kg for SOA.

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Wet digestion with nickel ion and atomic absorption spectrophotometric conditions with a graphite furnace (AAS-GF) were investigated in order to determine total arsenic in food samples. Food sample (1-5 g) was taken into 50 ml beaker and nickel nitrate solution (500 mg as Ni), 10 ml HNO₃, 1 ml H₂SO₄, and 5 ml HClO₄ (60%) were added and heated for 7-10 h at 190°C on a sand bath. The digested sample was filled up to 100 ml with water. Aliquot of sample is determined as follows. AAS-GF conditions : dry : 150°C, 25 A, 40 s ; ash : 1640°C, 120 A, 30 s, atom. : 2800°C, 310 A, 5 s ; sheath gas : argon, 3.01/min ; injection volume : 10 μl ; absorption wavelength : 193.7 nm. The loss of arsenic during the wet digestion was avoided by addition of nickel ion to sample, and when the arsenic was determined by AAS-GF, the effect of nickel ion resulting in an increase on absorption signal of arsenic was found. The results described above were obtained from the cross-check study on the method of Hirayama et al. proposed to the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan in order to establish the determination method of arsenic in food samples which would be adopted in the Standard Method of Analysis of Hygienic Chemists authorized by the same society.

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Three kinds of high-acrylonitrile resin (acrylonitrile-methyl acrylate copolymer) were investigated for material and migration tests and pyrolysis. Material and migration tests showed that the amounts of heavy metals, acrylonitrile (AN) and methyl acrylate as volatile materials, nonvolatile residue, and KMnO₄ consumption were under the regulated values for styrene-acrylonitrile copolymer and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer. Migration amount of AN monomer was determined to be 8-20 ng/ml in water, 5-6 ng/ml in 20% ethanol, 5-25 ng/ml in 4% acetic acid, and 22-27 ng/ml in n-heptane after treatment for 12 weeks at 37°C. Generation of AN monomer and CN^-from the resins during pyrolysis at 800°C was 9.77-22.1 mg/g plastic and 53.9-134.8 mg/g plastic, respectively, and the generated AN monomer was completely trapped in n-heptane and rapidly decomposed in 1N NaOH.

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