Occupational safety and health aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Japanese companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) first section.

Recently, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming widely recognized as an issue for Japanese companies. Corporate responsibility for employees is considered important by various stakeholders, and occupational safety and health is regarded as one of these responsibilities. The present authors examined this issue from the viewpoint of corporate management by analysis of statements found in CSR-related reports. For companies listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), we searched for CSR-related reports, and titles and contents, based on two established guidelines: the GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines 2002 as the international reference and the Environmental Reporting Guidelines of the Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan, as the domestic reference. Corporations that published CSR reports were 26.3% (416/1,581) of the total, and large differences were recognized by type of industry. Comparing the numbers of pages for various contents, more concern was shown about the environment than about social activity, indicating the environment to be the main issue of CSR in Japan. In the items included in the guidelines, many matters about occupational accidents were mentioned, but it was found that statements regarding HIV/AIDS, which is not of such strong social concern in Japan, and statements regarding the costs of safety that are difficult to calculate were few. However, statements regarding mental health, which is of high interest socially, were many, even though this issue is not included in the two guidelines used. In revising the guidelines, these matters should be reviewed. In the future, continuance of analysis of CSR-related reports with regard to changes and comparisons with overseas reports will help improve occupational safety and health.

[Fatigue estimation of visual display terminal (VDT) workers by physiological data--preliminary study of a new computer program for VDT work analysis].

The methods for assessing VDT workload based on individual capabilities are necessary to evaluate general fatigue by VDT work. We have developed a new computer program for assessing data entry performance of each individual. Four healthy male volunteers conducted a data entry task at their own pace using this program under a controlled environment. They performed the task for 30 minutes twice with 10 minutes rest between them. As a result, the average number of inputs was 133.2 characters/min in the first task and 129.1 characters/min after taking the rest. The error rate was 8.6% and 10.6% in each task. This program was useful to evaluate their data entry performance. We also reported our concern with a drop in nasal skin temperature that was observed during these VDT tasks.

[Effect of the Training Program at Occupational Health Training Center (OHTC) on the attitude of occupational health residents].

University of Occupational and Environmental Health (UOEH) conducts three courses in postgraduate education of occupational health (OH). Graduates of UOEH who have already received a basic education in OH can participate in any course and are trained to play an appropriate role as an occupational physician (OP). We operate the training program to provide practical knowledge and skills as well as to encourage interest in occupational health and to promote a further understanding of the role of the OP. In this study we evaluated changes in attitude of participants and the effectiveness of our program by an anonymous questionnaire. The subjects were all 19 participants of the 3-month program conducted between September 2003 and February 2004 as a part of the postgraduate education following several years of clinical experience. They were expected to be occupational physicians with a clinical specialty. The data were collected from questionnaires handed out at the beginning and the end of the program. The questionnaire included 8 items on the attitude toward occupational health. The subjects answered the questions according to a scale of 1 to 7. Data analysis was performed using the unpaired t-test by SPSS. The results suggested that our training program had a positive effect on trainees. Interest in occupational practice (P < 0.05) and willingness to act as a full-time occupational physician in a large company (P < 0.05) increased significantly. When considering the positive correlation between willingness to act as an OP and interest in a field that has some overlap between the speciality and occupational health, it was thought that developing a vision as an OP with respect to their career was important for training. However, in some clinical fields it may be difficult to define a relationship between the clinical speciality and occupational health. Understanding the role of an OP (P < 0.05) and self-confidence in playing an appropriate role as an OP (P < 0.05) also showed significant improvement. On the other hand, fourteen of the trainees (74%) did not have enough confidence to play a role as an OP even after completion of the program. In this study, the questionnaire we used was anonymous and did not include items concerning various attributes of the subjects. Therefore it was not possible to analyze changes of attitude at the individual level. We recognize the need to improve the program and are preparing a new version of the educational program with emphasis on understanding company organization activities and practical skills for problem solving. Opportunities to consider association between clinical speciality and occupational health are also included in this new version. We hope that the new program will further encourage trainees.

Hepatocyte growth factor enhances adhesion of breast cancer cells to endothelial cells in vitro through up-regulation of CD44.

For cancer metastasis, tumor cells present in the circulation must first adhere to the endothelium. Integrins play a central role in leukocyte adhesion to the endothelium and subsequent migration into tissues. The majority of tumor cells derived from solid cancers, including breast cancer, do not express integrins. We investigated the mechanisms of adhesion and transendothelial migration of cancer cells using breast carcinoma cell lines. Our results showed the following features of breast cancer cells: (1) HGF stimulated breast cancer cells by up-regulating CD44 expression in a concentration-dependent manner. (2) the maximum level of HGF-induced CD44 up-regulation on breast cancer cell lines occurred within 3 h. (3) HGF-induced up-regulation of CD44 was mediated by the tyrosine kinase signaling pathway. (4) HGF induced CD44-mediated adhesion of tumor cell lines to bone marrow-derived endothelial cells. (5) HGF did not change rolling of breast cancer cell lines on bone marrow-derived endothelial cells, but enhanced firm adhesion of cancer cells on endothelial cells under shear stress conditions. (6) HGF increased transendothelial migration of cancer cells. Our results indicate that HGF stimulates CD44-mediated adhesion of breast cancer cells to bone marrow-derived endothelial cells, which subsequently results in transendothelial migration of tumor cells. These results suggest that CD44 may confer the metastatic properties of breast cancer cells and, therefore, could be used as a target in future molecular cancer therapy.

Hepatic sarcoidosis associated with chronic hepatitis C.

A 57-year-old woman with sarcoidosis was referred because of the appearance of multiple small low-attenuation areas in the liver on computed tomography (CT). A liver biopsy specimen showed chronic active hepatitis accompanied by sarcoid granulomas. The patient received prednisolone and, later, interferon-alpha. CT at 5 months of prednisolone treatment showed disappearance of the hepatic low-attenuation nodules. During long-term follow-up, however, these nodules reappeared on CT and liver cirrhosis finally developed. We present this case for two reasons: (1) hepatic sarcoidosis was associated with chronic active hepatitis C; (2) hepatic nodular lesions were evaluated by CT throughout the entire course, with CT scans having been taken from 2 years prior to their appearance.

Oxidized low density lipoprotein-induced LFA-1-dependent adhesion and transendothelial migration of monocytes via the protein kinase C pathway.

Inflammatory and immune responses are highly relevant processes in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, as illustrated by the central event of monocyte accumulation in atherosclerotic plaques. Integrin LFA-1-mediated adhesion of circulating monocytes to the endothelium is a prerequisite for recruitment of monocytes to these areas. Integrin-mediated adhesion is tightly regulated and integrins are only functional in response to particular monocyte activation stimuli. We investigated the role of oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL) in adhesion of resting monocytes prepared by elutriation from endothelium. Our results showed that: (1) oxidized LDL (and MCP-1) induced both LFA-1-mediated adhesion of monocytes to endothelial cells and transendothelial migration of monocytes; (2) oxidized LDL functionally transformed monocyte LFA-1 to an activated form; (3) oxidized LDL induced F-actin polymerization and cytoskeletal rearrangement within seconds; and (4) the LDL-associated antioxidant, alpha-tocopherol, but not beta-tocopherol, inhibited both F-actin polymerization and LFA-1-mediated adhesion of monocytes, which paralleled the effect of protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitors. Our results indicate that oxidized LDL plays a pivotal role in triggering LFA-1 activation and LFA-1-mediated adhesion and transmigration of monocytes to sites of atherosclerotic plaques, via the PKC pathway.