ABSTRACT
Investigation was made into knee joint problems among tea pickers through a questionnaire. Following this, physical examinations were given and radiography was taken.<BR>Of the male respondents, 18.9% said that they have pains in the knee (s). The corresponding figure for the women was a high as 38.5%. The number of men and women who complained of knee pain increased with age. However, it was not clear whether the incidence of knee pain has any bearing on the number of years they had worked or working hours per day. Rather, it seems to depend on the configuration of the plantation.<BR>Knee pain occurs more frequently in persons working on sloping and hilly lands than those working on flat land. The difference in Q-angle is wider in the hilly area than in the flat land.<BR>X-ray examination of the knee joint of the persons who complained of sensations revealed degenerative changes in the form of the synovial cavity. Changes in the form of the patella were more evident in the persons working on the sloping land than on the flat land.<BR>On the slope, tea pickers have to bend their knees, requring femoral quadriceps and crural triceps to maintain contraction for cours. Thus the level of stress on the kneecaps becomes high.<BR>To prevent knee joint injuries, improvement of footings, mechanization of collecting work, decreases in the frequency of decending and ascending the slop, and having a rest at proper intervals are necessary.<BR>Furthermore, it is necessary to strengthen femoral quadriceps by excercise and control weight.
ABSTRACT
The concentration of pesticide that was inspired by speed sprayer (SS) operatorsin spraying a low toxic organophosphorus pesticide (800-fold to 1000-fold dilutions of wettable agent) were measured by the impinger-one respirator-per man measuring system. The mean ± standard error was 0.01116 ± 0.00191 mg/m<SUP>3</SUP>.<BR>The operators were made to perform the spraying task every day, and the organophosphorus pesticide concentration in the serum was gas-chromatographically measured before and after the task on each day. The maximum concentration after daily task was 0.032μg/2ml in an operator, and 0.061μg/2ml in anassistant. The concentration was already trace or undetectable in many of them the following morning. No apparent tendency for the pesticide to be accumulated was observed even in the operators after spraying the pesticide for 2 consecutivedays.<BR>The 24-hour urine was collected from each subject to measure the outputof PNMC (p-nitro-m-crezol). The output tended to be greater in the assistants than in the operators. This finding may be attributed to the fact that the assistants are trasiently exposed to high concentrations of the pesticide in powder form.
ABSTRACT
This study deals with comparative physiological changes such as basal metabolism (BM) between two inhabitants of Hirosaki, a cold district in Japan. One of the matched male subjects was a permanent inhabitant while the other had immigrated from Tokushima, a warm district in Japan, half a month before.<BR>From May 1969 to September 1970, body weight and physiological functions such as BM and others were measured every morning. Subjective estimations of their amount of work, dietary intake, the way they felt about the temperature on the previous day (temperature feeling), how fatigued they had felt when they got up (fatigue feeling), and how well they had slept (sleeping condition) were recorded by means of a five-grade scaling method. It was supposed that these factors would affect BM. The results were as follows:<BR>1. Differences in the values of the above influencing factors on BM between the immigrant and the permanent inhabitant were large during the early period of experiment, but they diminished and almost the same values were obtained from October 1969, except in November. Differences in decending order between the subjects were found in temperature feeling, fatigue feeling and sleeping condition, while amount of work and dietary intake were not so different.<BR>2. The changes of BM showed a pattern that had a peak during the hottest period in summer for both the immigrant and the permanent inhabitant from May to October 1969. It was possible that the difference in climate and geografical features affected the immigrant like a stress, and the high temperature and sports in summer affected the permanent inhabitant. However, after October 1969 there were differences in BM between the two subjects. The immigrant had a high BM during the warm period of spring, but the value was sharply lowered during the hottest period of summer. This change was quite different from that of the permanent inhabitant which followed the normal pattern.<BR>3. R.Q. of the two subjects peaked highly in winter and lowly in summer. The values were a little higher for the permanent inhabitant than for the immigrant. Although the body weight of the immigrant increased a little in winter and decreased a little in summer, such a seasonal change was not observed for the permanent inhabitant.<BR>4. The significant relationship between the average monthly atmospheric temperature and the monthly variation of BM from October 1969 to September 1970 was obtained for the permanent inhabitant. The critical atmospheric temperature, that raised and lowered his BM, was 9.8°C. The immigrant was found to have such a relationship only during the limited period between April and July.<BR>5. The representative mean values of monthly BM, which were measured on one day in the middle of month, on three days during the same period, on sixdays, i.e. two days of each of the three ten-day periods, and on every day, were compared with one another. The values of the one- and three-day measurements were considerably different from those of the every day measurements in the months during which there were large climatic changes, such as April, June or September. These monthly changes were shown to be markedly different.<BR>However, the values of the six-day measurements were similar to those of the every day measurements. It is supposed that at least six days are necessary for the measure-ment of BM during sudden changes of climate. But, it would be more desirable to increase the number of measurements to obtain more accurate data.