Journal of Occupational Health
Online ISSN : 1348-9585
Print ISSN : 1341-9145
ISSN-L : 1341-9145
Volume 42, Issue 3
Displaying 1-11 of 11 articles from this issue
  • Swaran J.S. FLORA
    2000 Volume 42 Issue 3 Pages 105-110
    Published: 2000
    Released on J-STAGE: April 07, 2006
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Possible Health Hazards Associated with the Use of Toxic Metals in Semiconductor Industries: Swaran J.S. FLORA. Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Defence Research and Development Establishment, Gwalior, India—Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), Indium Arsenide (InAs) and Indium Phosphide (InP) are the intermetallic compounds that are recognised as a potential health risk to workers occupationally exposed to their dust. Exposure to these semiconductor compounds in the microelectronic industry can occur during the preparation of material, cleaning and maintenance operations for quartz glassware and during cleaning of the reactor. The toxic effect of the intermetallic semiconductors appears to occur due to inhalation or oral exposure and may result in poisoning. Assessment of risk to workers engaged in GaAs/InAs production is difficult due to the lack of data on the toxicity of these compounds. Their toxicity is mainly estimated on the basis of inorganic arsenic because it is now well known that GaAs and InAs dissociate into their constitute moieties and exert adverse effects on the haematopoietic and immune systems. As their toxicity is still not very well understood the treatment also remains to be elucidated.
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  • Norio MISHIMA, Shinya KUBOTA, Shoji NAGATA
    2000 Volume 42 Issue 3 Pages 111-118
    Published: 2000
    Released on J-STAGE: April 07, 2006
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The Development of a Questionnaire to Assess the Attitude of Active Listening: Norio MISHIMA, et al. Department of Mental Health, Institute of Industrial Ecological Sciences—Interpersonal relationships are widely recognized as a major source of job stress, and a mental health training program that incorporates active listening (AL) has attracted much attention in Japan. However, few methods are available to assess the attitude of AL easily. To develop a new questionnaire that can measure workers'' personcentered attitude (PCA), which is closely related to AL, we formulated a scale of 47 items that describe basic elements of the PCA and AL. This preliminary scale was administered to 536 workers (426 male and 95 female) at two manufacturing companies. Responses to the scale items were subjected to a principal factor analysis followed by a varimax rotation. A scree test suggested three meaningful factors, whose cumulative contribution was 81.2%. These factors were subsequently labeled as “Listening Attitude”, “Listening Skill”, and “Conversation Opportunity”. Both Cronbach''s alphas and test-retest reliabilities indicated that all three factors were highly reliable. To examine the validity of the scale, factor scores of lay persons (middle-aged workers) were compared with those of 39 clinical therapists who specialize in psychosomatic medicine. Scores for all three factors were significantly higher for the therapists than for the lay persons. Of the three factors derived from the preliminary scale, the first and second showed remarkable differences between the groups and were retained for their usefulness for evaluating AL. The new scale, the Active Listening Attitude Scale (ALAS), is expected to be a useful instrument for various mental health programs to assess the PCA.
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  • Yoshihisa IRYO, Masato MATSUOKA, Hideki IGISU
    2000 Volume 42 Issue 3 Pages 119-123
    Published: 2000
    Released on J-STAGE: April 07, 2006
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Suppression of PentylenetetrazolInduced Seizures and c-fos Expression in Mouse Brain by L-Carnitine: Yoshihisa IRYO, et al. Department of Environmental Toxicology, Institute of Industrial Ecological Sciences, University of Occupational and Environmental Health—Seizure development in ddY mice was recorded on a videotape for 20 min after injection of pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) (50 mg/kg) and analyzed in detail. In addition, expression of the c-fos gene in the brain was semi-quantified by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis. When saline, L-carnitine (10 mmol/kg), or Dcarnitine (10 mmol/kg) was administered 30 min prior to PTZ, the seizures were suppressed in mice given Lcarnitine; the seizure scores were significantly lower in mice treated with L-carnitine at several time points, and the overall seizure scores were 31.43 ± 2.49, 10.57 ± 2.86 and 24.71 ± 3.05 (expressed as the mean ± S.E.M., n=7), in saline, L-carnitine and D-carnitine groups, respectively. The latency to the first clonictonic seizure was also prolonged in mice treated with L-carnitine. The level of c-fos mRNA in the brain was lower in the animals treated with L-carnitine than in those treated with saline or D-carnitine. Thus, Lcarnitine shows not only anticonvulsive effects in one of the most widely used animal models of chemically induced seizures but also the potential to suppress the seizure-associated expression of an immediate early gene in the brain.
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  • Koichi HARADA, Shinichiro HARA, Motohiro TAKEYA, Yehia A.-G. MAHMOUD, ...
    2000 Volume 42 Issue 3 Pages 124-129
    Published: 2000
    Released on J-STAGE: April 07, 2006
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Experimental Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis Induced by Fusarium kyushuense in Mice: Koichi HARADA, et al. Department of Hygiene, Kumamoto University School of Medicine—A recently described Fusarium species, Fusarium kyushuense, was isolated from dead leaves of egg plant in a greenhouse where a female farmer who developed hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) with progressing lung lesions had been working. The freeze dried fungus was exposed to specific pathogen-free, 6-week-old female C57Black/6J mice under light ether anesthesia. Each mouse received 40μl of the suspended fungal solution by dropping it onto its nostrils in 5 consecutive days a week for 4 wk. The control group received 40μl of 0.1 M sterilized phosphate buffered saline. The mice were killed on the 4th day after the final exposure. The lung indices increased dose dependently in the fungus exposed mice groups. The specific IgG anti-F kyushuense levels in sera of the high dose group were significantly higher than in the control group (P<0.05 by Ryan''s multiple comparison test). Histologically, the lungs of both low and high dose groups showed signs of atelectasis with granulomatous lesions containing multinuclear giant cells and activated macrophages. This is the first report that mice developed HP induced by repeated exposure to freeze dried F kyushuense.
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  • Noriyuki NAKANISHI, Yoshio MATSUO, Hideo YONEDA, Koji NAKAMURA, Kenji ...
    2000 Volume 42 Issue 3 Pages 130-137
    Published: 2000
    Released on J-STAGE: April 07, 2006
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Validity of the Conventional Indirect Methods Including Friedewald Method for Determining Serum Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Level: Comparison with the Direct Homogeneous Enzymatic Analysis: Noriyuki NAKANISHI, et al. Department of Social and Environmental Medicine, Course of Social Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine F2—Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLC) concentrations are most commonly estimated by the Friedewald formula [LDLC=total cholesterol (TC) high-density lipoprotein cholesterol triglycerides (TG)/5]. To assess the validity of the conventional indirect methods including Friedewald method for determining serum LDLC level, we analyzed 1953 serum samples from Japanese male office workers and compared the measured (the direct N-geneous assay) serum LDLC concentrations with calculated values, by using several terms for TG (i.e., TG/4, TG/4.5, TG/5, TG/5.5, TG/6, TG/7, and TG/8) in the Friedewald formula. Linear regression analyses showed the highest correlation for the estimated LDLC by the original Friedewald formula, with the term TG/5, with the measured LDLC (r=0.958). The mean LDLC estimated by means of the original Friedewald formula was 1.4 mg/d/ higher than the mean measured LDLC (p <0.001), but the difference between the mean estimated LDLC and the mean measured LDLC was the smallest for estimation by means of the original Friedewald formula. As for the accuracy of calculation methods, TG/5 agreed best with the direct assay for TG concentrations ≤99 mg/dl and TG/4.5 was best for TG concentrations of 100-249 mg/dl. For TG concentrations ≥ 250 mg/dl, TG/5 most closely matched the measured LDLC and gave the smallest mean percent errors, but with increasingly large estimation errors as TG increased. As for the accuracy of calculation methods according to lipidemic type, TG/5 was the best estimating term for normolipidemics (TC ≤219 mg/dl and TG ≤ 149 mg/dl) and hypertriglyceridemics (TC ≤ 219 mg/dland TG ≥ 150 mg/ dl), but the percentages of samples correctly estimated decreased with increasing TG concentrations. These results suggest that the original Friedewald formula, with the term TG/5, is reasonably well classified at TG concentrations ≤ 99 mg/dl or in normolipidemics, but the potential for significant estimation errors steadily increases with increasing TG concentrations. We conclude that direct LDLC assay such as the N-geneous method is a useful tool in the diagnosis and management of hypercholesterolemics, especially for those with increased TG.
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  • Soo-Hun CHO, Daehee KANG, Jong-Won KANG, Yeong-Su Ju, Joohon SUNG, Che ...
    2000 Volume 42 Issue 3 Pages 138-143
    Published: 2000
    Released on J-STAGE: April 07, 2006
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Use of Urinary PAH Metabolites to Assess PAH Exposure Intervention among Coke Oven Workers: Soo-Hun CHO, et al. Department of Preventive Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine and Institute of Environmental Medicine, SNUMRC—To assess the effectiveness of protective skin coveralls in reducing skin contamination among coke-oven workers, 1-hydroxypyrene glucuronide (1-OHPG) was used as an internal dose marker of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure. Twenty coke-oven workers at a steel plant in South Korea provided their first morning void urine samples before beginning work, as well as postshift urine samples after working for five days with regular skin protection. Pre and postshift urine samples from the same workers were collected after new skin coveralls made from Tyvek(R) had been worn during the week following regular skin protection. Urine samples were quantitated for 1-OHPG by immunoaffinity purification and HPLC with a fluorescence detector. The benzene-soluble fraction (BSF) of coke oven emissions (COE) in personal air samples from the 20 workers was also quantitated. To obtain information relating to smoking, job history, dietary habits, drug use, past medical history, and the use of personal protective equipment, a self-administered questionnaire was used. The mean age of study participants was 39.7 yr and the average length of employment was 12 yr (11 months 18 yr). In 20 workers, there was a statistically significant correlation between ambient COE and urinary 1-OHPG levels during the period of regular skin protection (r=0.50, p<0.05). The difference in 1-OHPG levels between post and preshift urine samples using regular skin protection was higher than when the new skin coveralls were worn. Although this was not statistically significant, there was a statistically significant difference in 1-OHPG among topside workers (p<0.05). These results indicate that the introduction of the new skin coverall resulted in significant reductions of urinary PAH metabolites among workers exposed to higher levels of PAHs. The measurement of PAH metabolites in human urine appears to be ideally suited to biomonitoring in the workplace and testing the effectiveness of attempts to reduce PAH exposure.
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  • Yasushi SUWAZONO, Yasushi OKUBO, Etsuko KOBAYASHI, Natsuo KINOUCHI, Ko ...
    2000 Volume 42 Issue 3 Pages 144-146
    Published: 2000
    Released on J-STAGE: April 07, 2006
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • Yasushi OKUBO, Yasushi SUWAZONO, Etsuko KOBAYASHI, Koji NOGAWA
    2000 Volume 42 Issue 3 Pages 147-148
    Published: 2000
    Released on J-STAGE: April 07, 2006
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • Yukiko FUETA, Toru ISHIDAO, Takahiko KASAI, Hajime HORI, Keiichi ARASH ...
    2000 Volume 42 Issue 3 Pages 149-151
    Published: 2000
    Released on J-STAGE: April 07, 2006
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • Yun Im GOUNG
    2000 Volume 42 Issue 3 Pages 152-155
    Published: 2000
    Released on J-STAGE: April 07, 2006
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Industrial Health Service Scheme in Korea: Yun Im GOUNG, Korean Industrial Health Association—The industrial health service scheme was officially started with the passing of the Industrial Safety and Health Act (1981), even though the Labour Standard Law was enforced at 1954. On the other hand, the health service for workers had been carried out from 1963 at the civilian level led by medical doctors who were interested in the health of workers in Korea. During the period from 1954 to 1981 before the establishment of this act(1981), the Labour Standard Law and Industrial Accident Compensation and Insurance Act(1963) had mainly covered such benefits as medical and disability care for industrial accidents and occupational diseases. Thereafter, the enforcement of this act (1981) placed the responsibility for health services for workers on employers of more than 5 workers, and also the industrial health service scheme was considerably revised in 1990 and has been in force to the present. There are now 46 provincial offices under the Ministry of Labour and these offices designate the institutes of special health examination, which have the ability to confirm occupational diseases, do industrial environmental monitoring and perform vicarious health management. There are now 94 institutes for special health examination, and industrial environmental monitoring, and 71 vicarious health management institutes.
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  • Yong-Tae YUM
    2000 Volume 42 Issue 3 Pages 156-162
    Published: 2000
    Released on J-STAGE: April 07, 2006
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Realization of Workers'' Health Promotion Services under the Umbrella of the National Health Promotion System of Korea: Yong-Tae YUM, Institute for Environmental Health, Korea University—Since the Ottawa Charter (1986), Health Promotion (H.P.) activities have spread worldwide. The Republic of Korea is not exceptional. In 1995, the H.P. Law was launched and service activities were started. However, H.P. at worksites in terms of occupational health services has been operating since 1960. The backbone of the national H.P. System in Korea was not very different from that of Japan and other countries. It included out-door exercise, periodic health check-ups, indoor exercise, gymnastic exercise, fitness programs, nutritional education, drinking cessation, smoking cessation, and other health counseling. For worksite H.P., special concern was given to periodic check-ups which comprised of both common and occupational diseases. In addition, periodic inspections of work environments were another major task of H.P. for workers. The last area of H.P. can be categorized as counseling and education collectively. Counseling and education activity for workers of medium and small scale enterprises where the number of workers is less than 300 is carried out by the Health Care Supporting Agency (HCSA) which is composed of 12 occupational health centers belonging to the Korean Industrial Health Association and other private agents. Strategies of health care supporting services of HCSA should be adopted in the future national plan of workers'' health promotion in Korea. HP copied from THP of Japan is not suitable for Korea at all.
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