| Research Abstract |
This study was made to clarify health troubles to the employees who were engaged in the work of filling shells with poison-gas at Kitakyushu-Sone poison gas shell factory.
The subjects for survey were 332 of there employees, 307 of whom had health examinations (129 males, 178 females). The mean age of the examinees was 70.0(〕SY.+-.〔)4.2 years for males and 68.9(〕SY.+-.〔)3.7 for females. The average working duration was 32.7(〕SY.+-.〔)14.0 months for males and 33.3(〕SY.+-.〔)16.9 for females.
Inspection revealed commonly-called "poison-gas Spots" on the dorsal skin of several males. The prevalence of chronic bronchitis, which is an important complication of poison-gas-induced sequelae was 48.1% among males and 33.1% among females, being distinctly higher than that reported previously. There was hardly and difference in the prevalence of chronic bronchitis among males between smokers and non-smokers, 47.6% and 50.0% respectively, and a statistically significant difference could not be observed. The effects of poison gas appeared to exceed those of smoking.
On the other hand, the number of deaths were 93, of which malignant tumors occupied 51.6% (gastric cancer 14, lung cancer 11, liver cancer 8, others 15).
The above results proved the existence of poison-gas-induced sequelae in those employees who were engaged in filling shells with poison-gas, which seemed to be slighter than that found in the poison-gas manufacturing workers.
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