[Questionnaire survey of ocular injuries due to fireworks in Japan].

PURPOSE: To report the results of a questionnaire survey of ocular injuries caused by fireworks in 2011. METHODS: A survey was performed by recovery of questionnaire postcards asking details of firework-related ocular injuries which were sent to 1,094 institutes recognized as training hospitals by the Japan Ophthalmological Society. RESULTS: The cards were recovered from 57.9% institutes, and showed that 23 eyes of 20 patients (17 men and 3 women) with firework-related ocular injuries were seen in 19 institutes. The patients' ages ranged from 1 to 45 (average 18.4) years old. Injuries were caused by either carelessness or accidents in 18 eyes of 15 patients, and by wrong usage of fireworks in 5 eyes of 5 young men (15-27 years old). These 5 eyes showed severe injuries involving the lens and/or retina, and required surgical treatment with finally measured visual acuities 0.4 or less. CONCLUSIONS: In Japan, hazardous use of fireworks seems to cause severe eye injuries from which at least 5 young adults suffered during one fireworks' season. Therefore, preventive measures should be taken including public education on the usage of fireworks.

Treatment of nonylphenol with laccase in a rotating reactor.

The effects of operation conditions on reaction rate in the enzymatic oxidative treatment of nonylphenol with laccase in a rotating reactor were studied. Sea sand that adsorbed nonylphenol was used as a polluted soil model. Nonylphenol concentration decreased with laccase treatment five times faster at 40 degrees C than at 10 degrees C and the apparent activation energy of the enzyme reaction was 39 kJ mol(-1), which was in the range of the values reported for similar laccase reactions. Reaction rate increased when the angle of the axis of the rotating reactor from the vertical line increased and when the speed of revolution was increased to 10 rpm at different volumes of the enzyme solution. Thus, mixing is important for the oxidation of nonylphenol with laccase. The nonylphenol released from the sand into the enzyme solution in the initial stage of the treatment was easily oxidized. However, the nonylphenol adsorbed on the sand reacted slowly. Reaction rate increased nearly proportional to the square root of enzyme concentration, which suggests that the nonylphenol radical reacted with unoxidized nonylphenol (nonenzymatic propagation) during the enzymatic oxidative treatment. The dependence of reaction rate on the nonylphenol concentration was similar to the Michaelis-Menten type. The residual estrogenic activity of the treated sand was measured by medaka vitellogenin assay. The estrogenic activity decreased to 1/6-1/90 after 24 h of the treatment.