The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of physical loads, measured physiologically and biochemically, on baseball umpires during a baseball game in hot weather in the summer.
These baseball games were held under the high temperature of about 30°C, a high humidity of 70% and high levels of solar radiation with a black-globe temperature of 45°C.
The results obtained were as follows.
1) The decreases in umpires' body weights immediately after the game were significant without exception, being about 1.19kg (1.7%). This could have been due to perspiration during the baseball game.
2) Blood pressures, systolic and diastolic, were observed to have decreased significantly after the game.
3) Total protein, albumin, total cholesterol, blood urea nitrogen, uric acid and creatinine in blood were observed to have significantly increased after the game.
4) The serum electrolytes sodium, chloride, calcium and phosphorus showed a significant increase after the game, but potassium was observed to have significantly decreased then.
5) Protein and creatinine in the urine increased significantly, but the entire urine volume decreased significantly due to perspiration.
6) The average energy consumption of the umpire during a baseball game was about half as much as that of a player.
The total amount of physical exercise by the former was ‘mild’ in degree as compared with that of the latter.
The physical load produced by the umpiring labor presumably resulted mainly from the heat stress brought about by exposure to the summer heat for a long time.
7) The physical loads were different depending on the position of the umpire, the umpire-in-chief having the greatest load, followed in descending order by the second-base umpire, the first-base umpire and the third-base umpire.

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A simple and rapid method for determining inorganic and organic mercury in urine was developed by improving the method of flameless atomic absorption spectrophotometry introduced by Littlejohn et al. (1976). In the present method, more than 1ml of 60% KOH solution (final concentration 7.1%; 1.8M) was added to 5ml of urine for atomizing mercury after the addition of stannous chloride as the reductant for inorganic mercury. In the determination of organic mercury reduced by a mixture of stannous chloride and cadmium chloride, more than 11ml of 60% KOH solution (final concentration 34.7%; 8.7M) was needed. In the inorganic mercury determination procedure, the reduction of ethylmercury was not completely inhibited by the addition of acidic L-cysteine solution.
The patterns of calibration curves for mercury determination were the same for mercury (II) chloride, methylmercury (II) chloride, ethylmercury (II) chloride and phenylmercury (II) acetate. The detection limit of all types of mercury used was 0.5ppbHg. The recoveries of mercury (II) chloride, methylmercury (II) chloride, ethylmercury (II) chloride and phenylmercury (II) acetate, which were added to urine, were 95.7%, 98.9%, 121.8% and 90.8%, respectively.

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Serum concentrations of prealbumin, cholesterol, carotene, and retinol binding protein in inhabitants living in rural areas along the coast in Japan and China were examined. The subjects were healthy adults (250 males and 436 females in Japan, and 88 males and 133 females in China), more than 30 years old. Serum cholesterol, prealbumin, retinol binding protein, and carotene concentrations were lower in both male and female Chinese. Serum carotene concentrations were lower in males (Japanese: 35.2μg/dl, Chinese: 18.7μg/dl) than in females (Japanese: 74.9μg/dl, Chinese: 25.8μg/dl). In contrast, the mean values of retinol binding protein were slightly higher in males than in females both in Japanese and Chinese. These results were closely related to dietary habits in both areas.
These results suggest that continuous lower levels of prealbumin, cholesterol and carotene may be associated with the earlier onset and higher incidence of cancer in Chinese.

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Even at present there are few experiments dealing with the levels of inorganic anions present in human serum; only chloride and phosphate are determined routinely. The fact that much less attention has been paid to other anions is due to a lack of rapid or convenient analytical methods. A suitable, though novel, method for the determination of anions is ion chromatography. After an appropriate dilution, the sample is directly injected into the ion chromatography without further pretreatment and plural anions are determined simultaneously.
In this paper, the authors report on ion chromatography measurements; i. e., on (1) the accuracies of measurements, (2) comparisons with colorimetric assays, and (3) an approach to the quantitative analysis of inorganic anions present in human serum.
Standard solutions including equal amounts of 7 anion species fluoride, chloride, nitrite, phosphate, bromide, nitrate, and sulphate, were made. These anions were accurately measured simultaneously, ranging from about 100mg/l to 0.1mg/l. Using river and hot spring water in Oita prefecture, good results were obtained from a comparative study of traditional colorimetric assays and the ion chromatographic methods. The concentrations of phosphate, bromide, nitrate, and sulphate in a standard human serum were determined and these agreed with the values found by other methods.
The ion chromatographic method is a rapid and reliable technique for the simultaneous determination of these anions in a small volume of serum. At present the authors are engaged in investigating the effects of various diseases on the levels of inorganic anions.

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冬期における日常生活の中で,手足が冷えて苦痛に感じている人が,意外に数多く存在して,中には手足の指先の触感の欠如など,かなり深刻な問題として悩んでいる人もいるようである。そこでこの手足の冷えを合理的に防止あるいは回復するため,厳寒期において,実際の手足の皮膚温がどの程度で推移して,その低下している皮膚温が暖房によってどのように回復していくか,またソックスの着用が皮膚温の回復にどのように寄与しているかを,女子学生20名について調べ,次のような結果を得た。
1.25°Cの温暖環境に入室後,素足の状態で90分間に渡って測定したところ,手母指掌側先端部皮膚温の経時的変化によって,被験者は次の3群に分類される。
1) 低温群:測定開始時にかなり低い22°C程度の温度を示し,90分経過後も室温程度にしか上昇しない。
2) 中温群:測定開始時に比較的低い20∼26°C程度の温度であるが,30分以内には30°C以上に急上昇して,暖環境に反応する。
3) 高温群:測定開始時にすでに30°C以上の高温状態にあって,90分間その状態を維持する。
2.低温群は手指先のみならず,足指先においても皮膚温が低く,90分経過しても室温にも達しない。ソックスを着用すると,手指先は回復する傾向をみせるが,足指先は依然と上昇しない傾向が強い。被験者本人も,非常に冷えやすいことを,日頃から感じており,かなり堅固な冷えの状態である。
3.中温群の手指先皮膚温は,急上昇して環境の変化に反応し,ソックスを着用すると,その反応は一層強いものとなる。
4.中温群の足指先皮膚温は,暖環境にあまり反応を示さない。ソックス着用時には,約半数が反応して皮膚温が上昇するが,あとの半数は反応を起こさず,素足時と同じ反応である。
5.高温群は他の群とは異なり,最初から手指先は30°C以上であり,足指先も比較的初期に上昇する。平常時にすでにかなり高い皮膚温を保っていると推測され,ソックス着用時でも,素足時とほとんど傾向は変わらない。
6.同じ暖環境温度に対して,群によって反応が異なり,同一被験者においても部位によって反応形態が異なる。
7.ソックス着用が皮膚温の経時的変化に与える影響は,直接被覆されている足部よりも,直接被覆されていない手部に強くあらわれる。

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老人保健法による健診受診率に影響を与える因子について市町村の人口規模による格差を明らかにするため,昭和60年5月に全国市区町村にアンケート調査を実施した。
1) 2,645市区町村より回答が得られ,回収率は80.7%であった。
2) 一般健康診査の精密診査の項目の実施状況をみると,法に定められた項目は人口規模の大きな自治体でよく実施されていたが,人口規模の小さな自治体では実施率がやや低く,市町村の財政事情や医療環境の違いが反映していると考えられた。
3) 一般健康診査の自己負担なしの市町村の割合は,人口規模5万以上の自治体で最も高く,市町村の財政力による違いと考えられた。
4) 健康診査の周知には,人口規模の大きな自治体では広報紙を利用し,人口規模の小さな自治体では地区組織を利用しており,人口規模による違いがみられた。
5) 一般健康診査の結果の通知は,人口規模の小さな自治体では,約半数が複数の方法で実施していたが,人口規模の大きな自治体では複数の方法で実施している割合が低かった。背景には人的資源の不足等が考えられた。
6) 健康診査受診率向上の工夫の実施状況をみると,広報の充実は人口規模に関係なくよく実施されているが,日時の設定の工夫は人口規模の小さい自治体で実施されており,地域の産業構造の違いによることが示唆された。
7) 一般健康診査の医師確保先では,一般診査の理学的検査,精密診査の判定とも,人口規模の大きな自治体では医師会より,人口規模の小さな自治体では保健所より確保している市町村の割合が最も高く,医師会の組織力の違いが影響していると考えられた。
8) 保健事業に協力している地区組織をみると,婦人会,老人クラブは人口規模の小さい自治体ほどよく協力していた。

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従来報告されている高速液体クロマトグラフィー(HPLC)によるプロスタグランディン(PG)およびトロンボキサン(TX)の測定は,それらの検出方法にいくつかの問題点があることを見いだした。我々は,その問題点を解決することを試み,HPLCによる検出感度の向上と共に,ヒト血漿中のPGおよびTXを検出することを可能とした。
本測定法の検出波長(励起光350nm,測光412nm)は,ラマン光の妨害を受けずPGおよびTXの9-アンスリルジアゾメタン(ADAM)誘導体の検出に適していることを明らかにした。さらにゲルパックA110カラムを用いたADAM誘導体の部分精製は,クロマトグラム上の妨害物質の除去に有効であった。以上のような改良により,高感度検出法を確立することができた。
我々の方法では,血漿中の6-Keto-PGF_1α,PGE₂(D₂),PGF_2α,TXB₂の同時測定が可能であり,生体試料中のPGやTXの測定に有用であると思われる。

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Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) in flue gases, slag and fly ashes from 7 incinerators in Kyoto Prefecture were measured as the total amounts of T₄-O₈CDDs by packed-column GC/MS analysis.
The results showed that various amounts of T₄-O₈CDDs were present in many samples and that their main component was O₈CDD. Although there was no correspondence between the distributions of concentration of any congeners in different species of samples, a similarity was found in the case of the distribution of concentration of each isomer in different incinerators and samples. A tendency for the concentrations of congeners to increase was observed in proportion to the number of chlorine atoms in the ashes of the electrostatic precipitators and gases.
Estimations of the emission amounts of each congener per day and per refuse by each incinerator were also carried out. The emission amounts of each congener per day were from 1.1 to 5800mg/d. The emission ratio from each sample varied according to the incinerator and congener.
The range of emission amounts of each congener per 1 ton of refuse was from 0.013 to 64mg/t, with T₄CDDs and P₅CDDs being 0.013-2.1mg/t and 0.022-4.4mg/t, respectively.
Therefore, it was suggested that the formation and decomposition of PCDDs depends on the different incinerator designs and operating conditions.

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The Research Committee of Epidemiology of Intractable Diseases (Ministry of Health and Welfare, Japan) analyzed the characteristics of medical institutions (hospitals and clinics) caring for 100, 563 patients with 26 intractable diseases who were provided with public aid for the diseases in 1985.
The results can be summarized as follows:
1) Thirty point six per cent of the patients visited large hospitals with more than 700 beds and 28.6 per cent of the patients were treated in hospitals of universities or medical schools. These rates were much higher than the rate for patients with common diseases.
2) Aged patients, whose physical activities seemed to have decreased, tended to visit small hospitals or clinics and many of them were treated in medical institutions within their prefecture of residence.
3) A large percentage of patients with diseases which inhibited physical activities, such as malignant rheumatoid arthritis, SMON and Parkinson's disease, visited small hospitals and medical institutions located in their neighborhoods.
4) Many patients living in prefectures near large cities, such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Fukuoka, visited medical institutions in the large cities.
5) In several prefectures where new medical school hospitals were established after 1970, other hospitals still played a leading role in medical treatment in the prefecture.

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In order to obtain basic knowledge about the factors associated with the intelligence level of the aged, a survey which consisted of measurement of the intelligence level of the elderly with a scale designed by Hasegawa (HS), assessment of activities of daily living (ADL), and interviews for getting information about the social environment of the subject were carried out on 851 people over 65 years of age residing in 3 regions located in the center of Wakayama prefecture. The results of this survey were as follows:
1. Both psychological space and the living sphere become smaller with aging.
2. The ADL assessment method designed for the aged in nursing homes is applicable to the elderly residing at home. By cluster analysis, 5 factors constituting ADL were identified. Those were physical independence, moving and acting ability, fundamental life circumstances, sensory ability and the ability to communicate.
3. By the analysis using a quantification method entitled “I” (designed by Hayashi), 5 factors associated with the HS score were differentiated between the sexes. In the case of males, they were age, secretory function, ideal life style, minor adjustment ability in daily life and education. In the case of females, age, having a purpose in life, the sphere of daily activity, education and participation in meetings for the elderly.

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By concentric circles with radiuses of 10km, 20km and 30km centered on Mt. Sakurajima, 25 cities, towns, and villages in the area surrounding this volcano were classified into three regional groups on the basis of human settlements. Utilizing data from the vital statistics issued by the Kagoshima prefectural government, the mortality figures for selected respiratory diseases covering an 11-year period 1975 to 1985 were compared among these regional groups. Patterns for the year-by-year variation of the age-adjusted mortality rates for these respiratory diseases were also examined in relation to some of the air pollution indices for correlation with the volcanic activity of Mt. Sakurajima. Results were as follows:
1) In the regional groups within 20km of Mt. Sakurajima, the observed number of deaths from bronchitis significantly exceeded the expected one for the standard population, and a clear declining gradient in the SMR (standardized mortality ratio) was observed with increased distance from this volcano. On a year-by-year basis for the 11-year period, the positive correlation coefficient obtained between the age-adjusted mortality rate and the atmospheric concentration of sulfur dioxide was statistically significant.
2) For asthma, the observed number of deaths was not significantly different from the expected one in the two regional groups within 20km of Mt. Sakurajima, but it exceeded the expected one in another regional group, 20km to 30km from the volcano. On a year-by-year basis, the age-adjusted rate for mortality due to asthma did not correlate with any of the air pollution indices for the volcanic activity of Mt. Sakurajima.
3) For emphysema, the observed number of deaths exceeded the expected one in the study area as a whole but no evidence for increased or decreased mortality was found in association with the distance from Mt. Sakurajima.
4) The observed number of deaths from pneumonia significantly exceeded the expected one in the regional group within 10km of Mt. Sakurajima. On a year-by-year basis, the age-adjusted mortality rate for pneumonia correlated with the number of eruptions of this volcano but correlated inversely with the atmospheric concentrations of sulfur dioxide and total suspended particles.
5) For acute bronchitis, no differences between the observed and expected numbers of deaths were found in any of the three regional groups but its age-adjusted mortality rate correlated with the atmospheric concentration of sulfur dioxide on a year-by-year basis.
From the above, it is considered possible that volcanic air pollution may have a causal association with the mortality figure for bronchitis but not with those for other respiratory diseases.

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