Noriaki Takeda

Impact of Health Professionals on Health Promotion Activities in Japanese Worksites

Impact of Health Professionals on Health Promotion Activities in Japanese Worksites: Tomohiro Hirao, et al. Department of Hygiene & Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Kagawa Medical University—We tried to assess the impact of health staff on health promotion activities in Japanese worksites. We surveyed all worksites with 50 or more employees in Kagawa Prefecture, western Japan through self‐administered questionnaires. We constructed a general linear model that contained three health professions, occupational physicians, health supervisors and occupational health nurses, which are common in the Japanese workplace as co‐regressors, and fourteen health promotion activities as dependent variables. The impact of occupational physicians was small. The impact of health supervisors was considered high in workplace defined activities. The impact of occupational health nurses was considered high in person‐to‐person services and life‐style related activities. Through assessing the impact, the strengths and weaknesses of each health professional were clarified.

Analysis of beta3 adrenergic receptor gene polymorphism using noninvasive samples obtained at scheduled infant health checkups.

Obesity is a risk factor for life-style-related diseases, and is based on three factors: genetic, environmental, and life-style. In adults, it is difficult to achieve and maintain normal body weight, so it is more effective to intervene from infancy to establish weight control. Legally required health checkups in infants of 18 and 36 months present important opportunities for obesity prevention. We consider genetic analysis to be a very important factor for obesity prevention in infancy. However, since health checkups don’t involve the collection of blood, genetic analysis is considered difficult. In this study, we attempted the typing of beta3 adrenergic receptor gene polymorphism as a genetic factor from non-invasively obtained samples, buccal mucosa, hair and cerumen in 96 infants at their 18- and 36-month health checkups. Sampling buccal mucosa, hair and cerumen instead of blood caused almost no anxiety to the child or parent, so 94.1% cooperation with sampling was obtained. From buccal mucosa, about 76% of the samples could be used for the typing of polymorphism (81% by enzyme method, 59% by kit method). From hair, about 44% of the samples permitted typing of polymorphism, but from cerumen only about 4% of the samples could be used. Results from buccal mucosa and hair typed about 90% of infant polymorphism. These results suggest that this method would be practical at periodic health checkups, and would probably be applicable to mass screenings for genetic factor analysis for other diseases.

Study on biological monitoring of fenpropathrin exposure in application by utilizing urinary 3-phenoxybenzoic acid level

To estimate pesticide exposure faced by applicators, an investigation of exposure-absorption was conducted on two applicators under routine working conditions and using regular procedures during pesticide spraying of greenhouse strawberries with fenpropathrin. The authors hypothesized that 3-phenoxybenzoic acid (3-PBA) is a urinary excreted metabolite of fenpropathrin, a synthetic pyrethroid pesticide with 3-phenoxybenzyl moiety, and its determination would help to improve the assessment of fenpropathrin exposure-absorption in applicators. The extent of exposure-absorption was evaluated by the determination of urinary level of 3-PBA (biological monitoring), the amount of the chemical adhered to clothes and permeated to the skin surface, and its concentration in the air of the greenhouse. The results showed that the fenpropathrin concentration in the air was less than 0.1 μg/m3. The amount of adhesion was less than 0.001 to 10.25 μg/cm2, and there was very little permeation. However, the urinary 3-PBA concentration by biological monitoring appeared to be approximately twice that of pre-exposure levels in both applicators. This finding demonstrates that the applicators were exposed to fenpropathrin and absorbed it during spraying. We conclude that the fenpropathrin exposure-absorption in application could be estimated by the determination of urinary 3-PBA. This method of biological monitoring may be more useful indicator to accurately evaluate the working conditions in application.

Tissue concentrations of chlordanes in mice after long-term exposures to technical grade chlordane at indoor air levels

We determined concentrations of chlordanes (5 chlordane compounds and 2 metabolites) in tissues and organs of mice following a prolonged exposure to Chlordane (technical grade chlordane) at levels as low as those in indoor air.After exposure to 4.22–11.36 μ g/m3 Chlordane (total of 5 compounds) in the air for 1–6 months, 6.44–13.00 ppm chlordanes (total of 7 compounds) were detected in mice (2 tissues and 6 organs). The adipose tissue among the 2 tissues / 6 organs examined contained the highest chlordanes. The ratio of the adipose tissue chlordanes to the liver chlordanes was approximately 5.6 times, followed by the muscle (0.9), lungs (0.4), kidneys (0.4), heart (0.3), spleen (0.2) and brain (0.1). In addition, trans-nonachlor, oxychlordane and heptachlorepoxide in chlordanes were at a high level.The level of Chlordane exposure (dose) and the level of chlordanes accumulation in each tissue or organ of the mice except for the heart were closely correlated (r=0.9388-0.7130), and showed a linear relationship. The tendency of chlordanes accumulation in light of the linear relationship was adipose ≫ liver ≥ muscle.Thus, even with a low level of Chlordane in indoor air, chlordanes may be steadily accumulated in the bodies of human residents with prolonged exposure similarly. The present findings suggest that it is necessary to investigate die risk of organochlorine chemicals contamination in indoor air at prolonged exposure.