Journal of Occupational Health
Online ISSN : 1348-9585
Print ISSN : 1341-9145
ISSN-L : 1341-9145
Volume 48, Issue 2
Displaying 1-10 of 10 articles from this issue
Review
  • Tomoko Takigawa, Yoko Endo
    2006 Volume 48 Issue 2 Pages 75-87
    Published: 2006
    Released on J-STAGE: April 13, 2006
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Glutaraldehyde (GA) is widely used in the industrial, scientific and biomedical fields. Many adverse health effects on humans have been reported in association with biomedical uses of GA, with 2-3.5% aqueous GA solution generally used for cold sterilization and GA exposure ranges of 0.001 to 2.6 ppm for this type of use. GA is metabolized extensively to CO2, but urinary excretion of it is low. Sensory irritant effects, sensitization of skin and respiratory organs and other symptoms have been reported among endoscopy nurses and medical radiation technologists. The prevalence of chronic bronchitis and nasal symptoms in humans is significantly correlated with peak concentrations of GA exposure. The extent of primary skin irritation depends on the duration and site of contact, and the severity of symptoms is dose-related. Chronic inhalation affects the nose and respiratory tract, and lesions become severe with prolonged duration of exposure. Increases in neither mortality nor tumor incidence have been found in workers with less than 0.2 ppm GA exposure, no evidence of carcinogenic activity has been obtained in experimental animal studies. There has been no clear evidence of genetic toxicity of GA in either in vitro or in vivo studies, and neither developmental nor reproductive toxicity has been found in humans or animals. To prevent hazards from GA exposure, use of closed-system, fully automated washing machines is recommended, since numerous symptoms have been found in individuals with less than 0.05 ppm GA exposure, the recommended peak exposure limit in many countries.
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Original
  • Sultan A Meo, Abdul Majeed Al Drees, Syed ZA Zadi, Salah AL Damgh, Ali ...
    2006 Volume 48 Issue 2 Pages 88-92
    Published: 2006
    Released on J-STAGE: April 13, 2006
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Over exposure to X-ray radiation is detrimental to the living cells and may lead to development of life-threatening diseases. It is intuitive to postulate that a low level exposure may lead to functional abnormalities in human immune cells. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to study the effects of X-ray radiation on the total leukocyte count (TLC) and phagocytic activity of Polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN). A group of 42 apparently healthy X-ray technicians were recruited with age ranging from 25-50 years. They were matched with another group of 42 control healthy volunteer subjects in terms of age, sex and ethnic variation. The mean exposure level of X-ray radiation in X-ray technicians was 72.4 mrem per calendar quarter and 289.6 mrem per year. TLC was performed by using a Beckman Coulter counter and phagocytic activity of whole blood and PMN was determined by measuring chemiluminescence (CL) response with a chemiluminescence luminometer. The mean value of CL response was significantly decreased (p<0.0005) in X-ray technicians, even though they had low levels of exposure, compared to their controls. However, no significant difference was observed in TLC between the two groups at this low level of exposure. Exposure to X-ray radiation decreases the physiological functions of PMN as measured by decreasing chemiluminescence response even at low levels of exposure.
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  • Zhou Jianhua, Xue Lian, Zheng Shuanlai, Du Juan, Yang Shuanxi
    2006 Volume 48 Issue 2 Pages 93-99
    Published: 2006
    Released on J-STAGE: April 13, 2006
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Cadmium is a potential carcinogenic environmental and occupational pollutant. A wide variety of mutagens have been shown to cause DNA damage, but it is not yet clear whether the DNA damage is relative to inducement of mutations. DNA damage and the formation of mutations at the hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyl trans ferase (HPRT) induced by cadmium chloride (CdCl2) were investigated with rat lymphocytes and V79 Chinese hamster lung cells. The hprt mutant frequency (MF) assay was used as the method to measure gene mutation in the rat lymphocytes and V79 cells exposed to CdCl2, and comet assay analysis was performed to detect DNA lesion and repair in CdCl2-induced V79 cells. The results showed that CdCl2 treatment caused a strong genotoxic effect and a marginal effect on the frequency of gene mutations. The hprt mutant frequencies in the rat lymphocytes and V79 cells exposed to CdCl2 were statistically higher than those of the negative control. There was statistical significance in TL, TD and percentage of comet cell with tails. CdCl2 treatment can induce DNA single-strand breaks. There was a dose-dependent increase between CdCl2 and DNA lesion. After cells were treated with CdCl2 and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), the TL and TD declined with repair time increasing, which indicated that DNA damages were repaired gradually. However, DNA repair with treatment of CdCl2 was slower than that of H2O2 in V79 cells, which suggests that CdCl2 affected DNA repair of damaged cells. The study also showed that the hprt MF and comet assay can be used for genotoxicity testing of heavy metals. DNA damage detected with the comet assay may be relative to mutagenesis.
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  • Xianliang Wang, Yongjian Yang, Xiaoli Wang, Shunqing Xu
    2006 Volume 48 Issue 2 Pages 100-106
    Published: 2006
    Released on J-STAGE: April 13, 2006
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    We explored the relationship between metals exposure and nervous impairment in welders. The metals exposure of 82 welders and 51 operators were evaluated for blood Pb, Cd and Mn by atomic absorption spectrometry, and the nervous system impairment was evaluated with the neurobehavioral core test battery and electromyography. Pb (geometric mean: 117.31 μg/L; range: 0.5-327.6 μg/L) and Cd (geometric mean: 3.54 μg/L; range: 0.2-12.5 μg/L) in welders were significantly higher than those in operators. Welders had higher prevalence of nervous system symptoms and worse standard scores of 8 items such as depression-dejection than operators. Significant difference of nervous performance in welders only existed in different concentration groups of Pb and Mn. The performances of fatigue-inertia and some others had negative correlations with Pb and digit span with Mn. Therefore, the nervous system impairment in welders could be attributed to occupational exposure of Pb and Mn, but not Cd, concomitantly.
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  • Tatsuhiko Kubo, Tetsuya Mizoue, Reiko Ide, Noritaka Tokui, Yoshihisa F ...
    2006 Volume 48 Issue 2 Pages 107-112
    Published: 2006
    Released on J-STAGE: April 13, 2006
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The present study investigated the association between visual display terminal (VDT) work and sick building syndrome (SBS) and the role of psychosocial factors in the relationship. Subjects were 2,161 Japanese office workers who responded to a cross-sectional anonymous self-administered questionnaire survey. Questions included were derived from the Miljömedicin 040, a validated questionnaire on SBS symptoms. After exclusion of data with missing information, data for 1,881 subjects were used for analysis. Multivariate logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratio for SBS with adjustment for potential confounding factors, including psychosocial work stress. In multivariate analysis, the odds ratio for SBS was significantly elevated for men engaged in VDT work for 4 or more hours a day (OR=2.5, 95%CI: 1.0, 5.9) compared with less than 1 hour a day, showing a significant trend association (P for trend=0.04). In women, although the odds ratio for SBS with VDT use of 4 or more hours a day was somewhat elevated with adjustment for non-psychosocial factors (OR=1.5, 95%CI: 0.5, 4.3), the increase was greatly attenuated after adjustment for psychosocial work distress (OR=1.1). In conclusion, our study suggests that extended hours of VDT use might be related to increased SBS symptoms. Moreover, psychosocial distress related to VDT work might mediate the relationship between VDT use and SBS symptoms in women.
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  • Hiroto Nakadaira, Masaharu Yamamoto, Toh Matsubara
    2006 Volume 48 Issue 2 Pages 113-123
    Published: 2006
    Released on J-STAGE: April 13, 2006
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This paper investigates the effects of tanshin funin, a posting without family, on the health of married male workers. A prospective study using the pair-matched method was performed. One hundred and twenty-nine married male tanshin funin workers in their 40s and 50s and as many matched workers living with their family (regular workers) participated. Fewer tanshin funin workers took breakfast everyday (OR=3.3, p<0.001). Tanshin funin workers more frequently suffered from stress due to daily chores (OR=3.6, p<0.001) and from stress-related health problems, namely headache (OR=4.7, p=0.013) and gastric/duodenal ulcers (OR=8.7, p<0.001). They also developed more frequently common cold/bronchitis (OR=14.5, p<0.001). The levels of γ-glutamyl transpeptidase for workers reluctant to work under tanshin funin and workers who spent less than two years in tanshin funin increased significantly from the fiscal year 1997 to year 2001 (46.7 to 67.5 IU/l, p<0.001, and 36.9 to 72.4 IU/l, p=0.005, respectively), although those of their matched regular workers did not show significant changes. The daily alcohol intake of reluctant tanshin funin workers (the equivalent of approximately 817 ml of beer) was higher than that of the matched regular workers (582 ml, p=0.026). In summary, abrupt changes in lifestyle and elevated mental stress were thus important effects of tanshin funin. Tanshin funin workers should be provided with health and lifestyle education programs and mental health care before and during tanshin funin. Doctors and nurses in the healthcare departments of companies should play a leading role.
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  • Hiroko Nagatomo, Yasuo Morimoto, Takako Oyabu, Masami Hirohashi, Akira ...
    2006 Volume 48 Issue 2 Pages 124-128
    Published: 2006
    Released on J-STAGE: April 13, 2006
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Oxidative stress is thought to be the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis induced by particles, and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) protects lung tissue against oxidative stress. We hypothesized that HO-1 is also associated with oxidative lung injury caused by exposure to particles. The present study was conducted to investigate the time course of HO-1 expression of lungs exposed to crystalline silica in vivo. Male Wistar rats were administered 1 mg or 2 mg of crystalline silica suspended in saline by a single intratracheal instillation and were sacrificed at 3 d, 1 wk, 1 month, 3 months and 6 months of recovery time. The expression of HO-1 was observed by western blot analysis and immunostaining. Protein levels of HO-1 were increased compared to the controls at 3 d, and from 1 month to 6 months following intratracheal instillation of 2 mg of crystalline silica. The levels of HO-1 were increased compared to the controls from 1 month to 6 months following intratracheal instillation of 1 mg of crystalline silica. Many HO-1 positive cells were found particularly in the alveolar macrophages during immunostaining. These findings suggest that HO-1 is related to lung injury arising from exposure to crystalline silica.
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Case Study
Field Study
  • Koichi Miyaki, Asako Hara, Mariko Naito, Toru Naito, Takeo Nakayama
    2006 Volume 48 Issue 2 Pages 134-140
    Published: 2006
    Released on J-STAGE: April 13, 2006
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    In 1998 and 2001, The World Health Organization and the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III proposed working criteria for the metabolic syndrome (MS), but they are not perfect for use in diverse ethnicities. In 2005, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and eight societies in Japan respectively proposed new criteria. However, there has been no report regarding the application of these new criteria in Japanese workplaces. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 377 healthy Japanese men aged 20-64 yr who worked in a chemical factory in Kanagawa, Japan. Participants completed a self-reported questionnaire, underwent a physical examination including waist measurements and brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV), and provided overnight fasting blood samples. The prevalence of MS in Japanese men was 17.0% and 13.5% according to the new IDF and Japanese criteria respectively. In both of the new criteria, baPWV was significantly higher in those with MS than those without MS (1,563 ± 264.2 vs 1,362 ± 204.6 cm/sec, p<0.001 in the new IDF criterion; 1,574 ± 265.2 vs 1,368 ± 209.1 cm/sec, p<0.001 in the Japanese criterion). In the analysis of the 5 or 6 subgroups stratified according to the number of MS components, baPWV increased significantly with increasing number of MS components (p for trend<0.01 in both criteria). The new IDF and Japanese criterion are both good for diagnosing MS among Japanese because a linear increase in baPWV occurred with increasing MS components after adjustment for potential confounding factors. Further studies are expected using these new criteria.
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