Thermal conditions in the bathroom and physiological responses were examined during winter and summer. The subjects were 22 male and 20 female elderly people, between 65 and 88 years old living in 25 houses in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. Heart rate, blood pressure, skin temperature and thermal sensation were measured during bathing. Changes in thermal sensation due to bathing were assessed in the living room and dressing room on a 9-point scale. Then they were asked about the purposes of bathing and the facilities of bathroom and dressing room. The results are summarized as follows:
1. The purpose of bathing in winter was to warm up for more than 80% of the subjects. In summer, all subjects felt refreshed by bathing. Eighty-five percent of the subjects took a bath every other day in both seasons.
2. Fifty-two percent of the bathrooms had no ventilating fans and 32% had no exclusive dressing rooms.
3. The average room temperature in the dressing rooms was 13-14°C in winter. Thermal sensation was ‘cool’, ‘slightly cold’ or ‘cold’ for more than two-thirds of the subjects when they were partially nude, and there were no heaters in most dressing rooms.
4. The heart rate increased steadily, and reached a maximum value in a partially dressed condition in both seasons.
5. In winter, a marked increase of systolic blood pressure was observed in the partially nude condition. There was a significant difference between the before bathing condition and partially nude condition in winter.
6. In summer, hand and foot skin temperatures were significantly higher than those in winter at any stage of bathing. In winter, they were extremely low in partially nude condition.
In conclusion that it is necessary to improve the thermal conditions in the bathroom and dressing room, especially in winter.

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This study attempted to measure the physical load on high school baseball players during games played under extremely hot and humid conditions in the summer.
The factors used to determine physical load were the following: body weight, oral temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, and serum biochemical elements. These were measured before and after the game. One hundred twenty-six baseball players from 7 high schools participated in this study. All the games were played under conditions of high temperature 34 degrees Celsius dry-bulb, 26 degrees Celsius wet-bulb, 41 degrees Celsius black-globe, 30 degrees WBGT, which are likely to cause heat-related illnesses.
The results were as follows.
1) The physical load of baseball players during the game showed a 1.8 percent decrease in average body weight due to perspiration, a 0.35°C increase in oral temperature and an increase in the heart rate. Examination of the serum biochemical elements showed that muscle deviation ferment changed due to muscular activity and blood condensed due to perspiration. The physical load levels of baseball players were influenced more by extreme heat than by exercise during the game.
2) The group of starting players showed higher body weight loss, oral temperature, heart rate, blood condensation and muscle deviation ferment levels than the group of players on the bench due to the difference in the length of exposure to summer heat and the amount of physical exertion. The changes in physical load levels during the game for the group of starting players were greater than those for the group for players on the bench.
3) Considering the changes in body weight, blood condensation and muscle deviation ferment, we can say that physical loads of players differed according to their positions, the pitcher having the greatest load, followed in descending order by the catcher, infielders, and outfielders.
It has been recommended that high school baseball players should take different kinds of rest depending on their positions in order to recover from fatigue as soon as possible after a game.

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The objectives of the present study are to directly measure the pulmonary and systemic arterial pressures in unanesthetized, and unrestrained rats during exposure to cold and to assess pulmonary vascular responsiveness to administration of the α- and β-adrenergic receptor antagonists phenoxybenzamine (1mg/kg, i. v.) and propranolol (20μg/kg, i. v.), during exposure to cold. Furthermore, the rats underwent long-term exposure to cold, and pulmonary arterial pressure, systemic arterial pressure, heart rate, arterial blood gases and colonic temperature were measured. A special hand-made catheter filled with heparinized saline was inserted into the pulmonary artery via the right jugular vein, the right atrium and the right ventricle. Mean pulmonary arterial pressure was elevated during cold exposure for 2 hours. Arterial blood oxygen tension slightly decreased and carbon dioxide tension slightly rose under these conditions. The increase in cold-induced pulmonary arterial pressure was significantly lower after the administration of propranolol, but there was no change after the administration of phenoxybenzamine. However, after administrating the α-adrenergic blocking agent a resultant increase in heart rate and fall in systemic arterial pressure during cold exposure prevented our evaluation of the pulmonary circulatory changes. These results show that β-adrenergic responsiveness of pulmonary vascular smooth muscle may have a role in the maintenance of cold-induced pulmonary hypertension.

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Risk factors for Japanese cedar pollinosis including past or family history of allergic diseases, smoking and passive smoking, dwelling conditions, and life events were analyzed by a case control method. Patients with Japanese cedar pollinosis (22 males and 67 females) were matched with a corresponding number of patients without potential symptoms of pollinosis according to sex and age (±5 years). The mean age was 39 years in both groups. The odds ratio (OR) was calculated by McNemar's method and the conditional logistic regression model.
The design and methodology in this study were somewhat inadequate so that the validity of the results is limited. The most important problem was no-matching according to exposure to pollen.
Significantly high OR for past history of allergic disease (8.80, 95% confidence interval (CI); 3.49-22.2), atopic sermatitis (9.00, 95% CI; 1.14-71.0), and a sibling history of allergic disease (3.25, 95% CI; 1.06-9.97) were consistent with former genetical studies.
ORs were lower than unity for current smokers (0.36, 95% CI; 0.11-1.13) and those smoking 10 cigarettes/day or more (0.20, 95% CI; 0.04-0.91) relative to nonsmokers. The OR for passive smoking from 7-15 years of age as a result of the father's smoking habit (0.38, 95% CI; 0.17-0.86) was also significantly low. Smoking was suggested to increase the level of total and antigen-specific IgE in serum by former studies, so that sensitization and symptoms should be studied separately.
The high OR of residents in a business or light industrial area (5.00, 95% CI; 1.45-17.3) suggested an association with air pollution. The findings such as a high OR for using a gas stove (3.52, 95% CI; 1.34-9.24), low OR for using an airconditioner (0.38, 95% CI; 0.16-0.87), and a not significant OR for other housing environments, were controversial by comparison with former studies of allergic responses to indoor antigens. “Moving” was the only item with a significantly high OR among the 37 life events. Therefore, it may represent an environmental change rather than mental stress.

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A study was conducted to elucidate the acute effects of endurance exercise on white blood cells by setting three conditions of different intensity and duration; (a) an upper limit of aerobic exercise for health promotion and (b) superior limits within endurance exercise tolerance for untrained persons were prescribed separately for the same healthy untrained male student volunteers (n=10) at intensities of 85% and 95% of the individual anaerobic threshold (AT) values for 1h and 1.5h, respectively, on a bicycle ergometer. In addition, (c) participants in a 100-km marathon race (n=20) who continued running for 10-13h were examined. Every condition caused significant leukocytosis due to predominant neutrophilia and, to a minor degree, a significant increase in monocyte number, the magnitude of which depended on the severity of endurance workload and persisted even 1h after the termination of exercise. Simultaneously, microscopic evaluation of blood smears revealed the occurrence of an increased proportion of band neutrophils and a decreased proportion of hypersegmented neutrophils (shift to the left) following exercise in condition (b) but not in (a), suggesting that neutrophils are mobilized partly from the bone marrow reserve to the circulation. On the other hand, peripheral lymphopenia was observed after the termination of endurance exercise. These phenomena closely mimicked the known effects of exogenous glucocorticoid administration, suggesting an association with endogenous stress hormone (cortisol) secretion following strenuous exercise. Based on these findings, it is estimated that the threshold workload intensity at which the prominent neutrophilia is induced following endurance exercise with duration over 1h would correspond to the level of the individual anaerobic threshold.

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Two branch offices of enterprise T in the same city engaged in service and sales were selected at random for this study on the evaluation of smoking cessation education using the urine cotinine concentration (U-Cot) measured by ion pair reversedphase high performance liquid chromatography (IP-R-HPLC). Branch A conducted a smoking cessation education program; brance B did not. By comparison of the results obtained from questionnaires and U-Cot analyses at both the offices, we investigated the validity of evaluation by U-Cot. The results were as follows;
I. Smokers
1. At branch A, a self-reported 20-year-old female non-smoker was confirmed to smoke about 5 cigarettes per day by her high concentration (292.8) of U-Cot at pre-education.
2. At branch A, the self-reported average number of cigarettes smoked daily (ANCSD) at 6 months post-education showed a significant decrease in comparison with that at pre-education.
3. At branch A, U-Cot at post-education showed a significant decrease in comparison with those at 2 weeks, 2 months, and 6 months pre-education in descending order.
4. Two male subjects who were strongly suspected to have submitted a false number of cigarettes smoked prior to urine sampling (NCSPU)/ANCSD self-reports at 6 months post-education were confirmed to have done so by the U-Cot values at the fourth period, which were in excess of 500, and the discrepancy between the ratio ([value at posteducation in 6 months]⁄[value at pre-education]) of U-Cot (1.52, 1.47, respectively) and that of NCSPU/ANCSD, (0.00)/0.00).
5. At branch A, discrepancies between the success rate of quitting smoking in self-reported NCSPU/ANCSD at 6 months (17.0%) and in U-Cot (12.2%) were observed. At branch B, no such discrepancies were observed.
6. At branch A, office workers at 6 months post-education who had, but not those who had not, previously considered the health damage caused by smoking showed a significant decrease in NCSPU/ANCSD, and also in U-Cot at 2 weeks, 2 months and 6 months post-education. At branch B, no such differences were observed.
7. At branch A, office workers at 6 months post-education who had previously considered quitting smoking showed a significant decrease in NCSPU/ANCSD, and also in U-Cot at 2 weeks, 2 months and 6 months post-education. Those who had not previously considered quitting showed a significant decrease in ANCSD, but not in NCSPU or U-Cot. At branch B, no such differences were observed.
8. At branch B, no significant changes in NCSPU/ANCSD or U-Cot were observed between the first (starting point) and fourth period (6 months).
II. Nonsmokers
1. At branch A, a significant decrease in the nonsmoker U-Cot value at 2 weeks posteducation was observed in comparison with that at pre-education, but no decrease was observed at 2 months or 6 months post-education.
2. At branch B, no significant decrease in U-Cot at post-education in 6 months was observed compared with that at the beginning of the study.

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The association between birthweight and parents' occupations was examined with the 1985 Japanese Vital Statistics, which recorded 1, 419, 465 live births delivered in Japan from April 1985 through March 1986. The mean birthweights [MBWs] were significantly different according to the paternal occupation as well as the maternal occupation after adjusting for the infants' sex and parity. The MBWs of children of unemployed fathers were significantly lighter than those of offspring of employed fathers. This was due to both retarded intrauterine growth and a shortened gestational period. By contrast, the MBWs were not affected by the unemployment of mothers. The possible reasons for the decreased MBW in the case of unemployed fathers were economical problems due to unemployment, less favorable characteristics of demography and obstetrics, and psycho-social stress among the wives of the unemployed.

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The toxic effects of long-term administration of cadmium (Cd) on the kidneys, liver, and hind leg bones were studied histologically and roentgenologically in 29-day-old female ICR-strain mice separated into groups variously fed 1) a commercial (caleium [1.17%], vitamin D [220IU/100g], vitamin E [10mg/100g]) diet, 2) a low Ca (0.18%) diet, 3) a low Ca and low D (50IU/100g) diet, and 4) a low Ca, low D and low E (5mg/100g) diet. Though the levels of vitamin D and vitamin E were designed to be low in each diet, their amounts fulfilled the nutritional requirements. Theree subgroups in each category were fed Cd at dietary concentrations of 0, 20 or 40ppm. After 12, 18 or 24 months on these diets the mice were sacrificed.
1) In the groups fed the commercial diet containing Cd, prominent swelling of the glomerulus and thickening of the basement membrane of glomerulus were observed. This did not occur in the groups fed the commercial diet without Cd.
2) In the groups fed the Cd-added low-Ca diet the following findings were more prominent compared with the low-Ca diet group. In the kidneys, swelling of the glomerulus, hyaline casts in tubular lumina and cellular infiltration of the interstitial tissue were present. In the liver, cellular infiltration on the interstitial tissue were present. In the liver, cellular infiltration of the interstitial tissue occured. In the hind leg bones, thinning of trabeculae and ossification of the Achilles's tendon were seen.
3) In the Cd-added low-Ca, D diet groups, there was atrophy of glomerulus, thickening of basement membrane of glomerulus, and atrophy of tubular epithelial cells in the kidneys, while in the liver, binuclate cells, anisonucleosis and enlargement of Kupffer cells were seen. In the hind leg bones, thinning of the cortex and trabeculae were present. All of these findings were more prominent in this group than in the low-Ca, group.
4) In the Cd-added low-Ca, D, E, diet groups subjects the following findings were more prominent than in the low-Ca, D, E, diet group. In the kidneys, there was swelling of glomerulus and in the liver, there were binuclate cells, anisonucleosis, and cellular infiltration into interstitial tissue. In the hind leg bones, thinning of the cortex and trabeculae, a decrease of cartilage cells and a decrease of osteocytes were seen.
These histological and roentgenological changes were seen to increase in a dosedependent manner with the amount of dietary Cd.
As a result, we found that some mice given a low-Ca, D, E and Cd-added diet developed bone osteoporotic changes. However, there was no evidence of osteomalacic changes due to cadmium during the 24-month experimental period.
We concluded from these results that aging progressed quickest in the 40ppm Cd-added low-Ca, D, E diet.
The diets promoted the effects of Cd in the following order: low Ca, D, E diet>low Ca, D diet>low Ca diet>commercial diet.

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The maximum biting force of 40 male students aged 26.1±3.9 years was assessed to evaluate the relationships between biting force and the morphology of the maxilloface.
The evaluations were made using roentgenographic cephalogram measurements and oral model measurements. The results obtained were as follows.
1. The subjects who had strong maximum biting force (MBF) were those with high posterior facial height, high posterior inferior facial height, long length from the Ar-Me line to the gonion, and long length between the adhesion of the masseteric muscles.
2. The subjects who had strong MBF had a small gonial angle, and their occlusal plane and mandibular plane approached the anterior cranial base and eye-ear-plane, that is, the subjets with strong MBF were considered to be persons with a deep overbite.
3. There was a significant positive correlation between MBF and discrepancy values using oral model measurements (p<0.01).
No significant correlations were noted between MBF and the sum of teeth size.
4. There was a significant positive correlation between MBF and maximum grip strength (p<0.01), back strength (p<0.01) and the long jump (p<0.05), and there was a significant negative correlation between MBF and 50m running (p<0.01), but no significant correlations were noted between MBF and 1500m running.

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