Exposure levels of workers to fenpropathrin were studied during or after the application of the insecticide in a grape orchard. One farmer applied 25 g of the pesticide as an active ingredient to the 30-are orchard for 15 min with an airblast sprayer. The operator was most exposed on his legs, back and head. Consequently, his dermal exposure level was estimated at 783 μg (=12 μg/kg of b. w.), corresponding to 0.003% of the total amount of fenpropathrin sprayed. Another worker entered the orchard for 20 min at reular intervals during the period of 9 days after application. Upon entering 1 hr after application, the farmer was exposed predominantly on his head and to a lesser extent on his arms and back, and his estimated exposure level was 272 μg (=4.7μg/kg). At the subsequent reentries, his exposure level was reduced gradually, and no trace of exposure was recognized at the 9th day. Foliar residues were worked out at about 130ng/cm² 1 to 6 hrs after application, and thereafter decreased to 14ng/cm² at the 9th day. The dissipation of foliar residues of fenpropathrin was expressed in the following regression equation: Y (ng/cm²) =116-0.5 X (hrs). Thus, the half-life of fenpropathrin was estimated at 100 hrs on grape-leaf surfaces. Also, the dermal exposure levels of the reentering worker were correlated with the foliar residues, and when the residues on the leaves were reduced to less than 27 ng/cm², it was suggested that contact with leaves do not cause dermal exposure.

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To investigate the actual situation of obese children in a rural district and to make fundamental data available for taking steps to cope with the overweight problem, we performed a logitudinal study of obesity incidence in senior high school students over the whole period ofattendance at school from the first year until graduation. The subjects were 338 male and 387 female students. The degree of obesity was determined in accordance with Murata's index.
Our findings were compared with the results of a similar investigation covering 238 male and 163female senior high school students in an urban district of Hokkaido.
The obesity incidence was significantly (p<0.05) higher among the rural students than among their urban counterparts, regardless of sex. In the rural district, 18 boys and 17 girls had already been regarded as obese when they were admitted to their junior high school, and 14 (78%) of those boys and 7 (42%) of those girls remained obese until 14 years of age.
However, the number of obese children increased rapidly when they entered the period of adolescent growth spurt but most of those obese children came within normal range of body weight by 14 years of age.
Based on these characteristics of childhood obesity, we should encourage children, especially in early infancy, to have proper exercise and to follow good health practices.

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Hereditary spherocytosis (HS) is a condition characterized by jaundice, hepato-splenomegaly tumors, and the presence of spherocytes. It accounts for about 70% of the reported cases of congenital hemolytic anemia in Japan. Many researchers state that this pathologic condition primarily arises from an abnormality of the red blood cell membrane. We have encountered a familiy, all the members (23-year-old daughter, 20-year-old son, 53-year-old-father, and 46-year-old-mother) of which had their cases diagnosed as HS by peripheral blood examination and electron microscopy. Excluding the farher, the peripheral blood examination also revealed anemia in the other family members. Moreover, the common HLA was found in all the members of these two families including the one on the mother's side, but human parvovirus B19 was not detected at all. We are providing the socalledprophylactic visiting care for the two families, while giving them information about HS which is arelatively easily-misunderstood hereditary disease. We did not find any report about married coupleswith hereditary spherocythosis. In this paper, we report our findings so far obtained through visiting care with some bibliographic discussion on HS.

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Psychosomatic health conditions and the cost of care were examined in 22 families tendering the sick and provided with visiting nurse services. To evaluate the state of psychosomatic health and the cost of care, the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and the Cost of Care Index (CCI, Kosberg et al.) were used. The results of the GHQ showed that factors relating to somatic symptoms, anxiety and sleep disturbance, and social dysfunction are significantly correlated with calculated CCIs. However, activitis of daily living scores of the patients were not correlated with GHQ findings or CCIs. Also, there was no relationship between GHQ results and CCIs and duration of care or the types of care that givers. The GHQ results also revealed elements of social dysfunction in families of a single care giver are marked significantly higher than in those of two or more care givers. There was no correlation between subjects who were given welfare services and those who were not.
These data suggested that we should give more attention to the aspect of health and the cost of care in care givers.

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We examined the relationship between Type A behavior and the results of a health screeningexamination in subjects who work in T town office.
A screening test for type A behavior (Tagawa et al.) was given to 65 subjects (42 males and 23females) with a mean age of 38.5 years.
There were 20 Type A2, 10 Type Al, 6 Type B1 and 19 Type B2 subjects. There was a significant correlation between type A score and diastolic blood pressure. Subjects with hepatic dysfunction had higher type A scores than those with normal hepatic function.
Our results suggest that there is a close relationship between type A behavior and both diastolic blood pressure and hapatic dysfunction.

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To make it possible for sick persons to continue to receive home care as long as they wish, it is pointed out, what is needed is to develop a comprehensive care system under which public health, medical care and social welfare form a trinity to grapple with complicated problems confronting home patients and their families. With the number of aged households increasing, there is a growing number of cases where aged persons look after their spouse. This situation gives rise to many troubles. In recent years, the number of inpatients who say they wish to go home earlier and prefer recuperation in their homes has been rising in a steady curve, despite the fact that they need hospital treatment. Physical and psychological burdens shouldered by familiy members supporting the sick person may be heavier than medical service providers surmise.
In the town of Goshiki-machi, a home care supporting system and hot lines were put into operation in May 1995, making the most of the two-way capabilities of the town-wide cable television network. Thus, home patients and their families have been linked to the hospital and public health and welfare center. Visiting nurses and health aides, without a trip to the hospital from the patients' homes, have now been able to consult physicians in charge on the screen as occasion demands. In this paper, we will outline the system, dwell on how it is being operated, and assess the results of the undertaking at a community level, probably first of its kind in the world.

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Erythema gyratum repens (EGR) is characterized by peculiar clinical features of a wood-grain or zebra-like appearance and rapid migration of concentric erythematous bands as a skin manifestation.
Since Gammel reported in 1952 the first case of this condition as a complication in a 60-year-old man with breast carcinoma, a large number of cases with underlying malignancies have been recorded in medical literature throughout the world. Therefore, ERG has been considered an absolute form of the paraneoplastic skin syndrome.However, Barber et al. reported a case of EGR resulting from pulmonary tuberculosis and unassociated with visceral neoplasm in 1978. Many recent studies also suggests that not all the EGR cases are definitely linked to underlying malignancies.
In this article, we describe a case of a 51-year-old man with EGR in whom no internal malignancies could be detected. We also discuss distinctions between EGR and erythema annulare centrifugum (EAC) and more complex clinical and immunopatholigic aspects of EGR, which have come to the attention of medical researchers recently.

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