Physical fitness and sports medicine research in industrial/occupational health following public announcement of the new Total Health Promotion Plan guidelines / 体力科学

In present-day society with its proliferation of various work styles, many companies and workplaces are faced with the important and complicated tasks of maintaining and promoting workers’ health. Amid this climate, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan on March 31, 2020, announced its revised “Guidelines for Total Health Promotion Plan for Workers in Workplaces.” This is a major revision of the original Total Health Promotion Plan (THP) that had been implemented up to that point. In the field of industrial/occupational health, physical activity and exercise are key topics addressed within the THP. This necessitates further study of physical fitness and sports medicine. In this study, based on societal trends and previous studies, we have reviewed the role of physical fitness and sports medicine research within the field of industrial/occupational health. We conclude it is important to clarify issues and objectives in each workplace and ways of concretizing plans to resolve and achieve them. Specific methods for doing so are diverse and indefinite, and creativity is required. Numerous options and types of tools should be created for applying outcomes on physical activity and exercise in accordance with the THP. Not only the viewpoint of avoiding risk, but also the viewpoints of accruing assets and taking a behavioral science approach toward continuing physical activity and exercise need to be considered. Research on these matters has not progressed sufficiently and we must advance a high volume of studies through various academic societies.

Labor and Health of the Farmers Growing Vegetables in Vinyl greenhouses / 日本農村医学会雑誌

Adaptation phenomena in human body subjected to several hours of labor a day under an artificial environment of high temperature and humidity in a vinyl greenhouse were studied in the same subjects as reported previously, by the comperative observation of specific gravity of blood, differential leucocyte count, serum potassium, and serum cholin-esterase activity.<BR>Results obtained were as follows: 1. When a farmers changed his work from outside to inside of the vinyl greenhouse, neutrophils and ChE activity suddenly decreased in comparison with the controls, while lymphocytes suddenly increased.<BR>Serum potassium at this stage was low.<BR>These values and dynamic changes are similar to those in parasympathicotonia usually seen in summer.<BR>2. A sudden change of the body reaction to that of the summer type has probably took placo in order to adapt it to the summer-like climate in the vinyl greenhouse.<BR>Since such change is unusual with adaptation to natural climate, this might be called an insufficiency in adaptation to climate.<BR>3. Since such changes take place in cold and warming-up seasons, cold and bronchitis are often found.<BR>4. As a result of periodic examination, decrease in specific gravity of blood was noted along with the change in the body condition to summer type of farmers working in vinyl greenhouse.

Labor and Health of the Farmers Growing Vegetables in a Vinyl greenhouse / 日本農村医学会雑誌

Fluctuations in fatigue attendan tupon labor of farmers growing vegetables in vinyl greenhouses were studied on farmers working in vinyl greenhouses in Tokushima prefecture in 1966 an 1967.<BR>Following conclusions were obtained: 1. The hours of labor in vinyl greenhouses and amount of work increased during the period of preparation for growing vegetables.<BR>The total hours of agricultural labor was 10.5 hours in males and 8 hours in females, with 3050 Calories consumed in a man and 2650 Calories in a woman per day.<BR>Complaints of the farmers are prominent, though the labor is only of moderate severity.<BR>Such paradox is probably due to the peculiar nature of the labor and the environment in the vinyl greenhouse.<BR>2. The load to the farmer, as seen from the viewpoint of various physiological and metabolic functions and blood findings was great at the time of transition from the outdoor work to the work inside the vinyl greenhouse and in the so-called spring farming season.<BR>The former is definitely at variance with the previous reports on the fatigue in agricultural labor.<BR>3. In the preparatory period for the growth of vegetable in the vinyl greenhouse and the period of plantation the physiological load was greater in man, while it was greater in woman during the controlling period.

Labor and Health of the Farmers Growing Vegetables in a Vinyl greenhouse / 日本農村医学会雑誌

From the epidemiological point of view, health disorders of the farmers working in vinyl greenhouse were investigated by means of the simplified Cornell Medical Index.<BR>The results obtained were as follows: 1. The number of affirmative answers to somatic items was larger with farmers working in a vinyl greenhouse than with other farmers.<BR>2. Either male or female following complaints were more frequently found among vinyl greenhouse than among other farmers with significant difference: sensitiveness to cold, anorexia, nausea, arthralgia stomachache, iching of skin, dizziness, easily fatiguable dullness in some regions of the body in a morning, and moreover, strain in the eyes.<BR>3. The pattern of the main symptoms complained by the farmers working in vinyl greenhouse was different from that attributed to the so-called Nodusho.<BR>4. It seems that the differences between the two kinds of farmers were due to the peculiar environmental conditions and the labor under the high temperature and humidity in the venyl greenhause, and also due to frequent going in and out of the operation room the climatic condition of which is quite different.