Environmental Measurement and Control

Professor : Keiichi Arashidani (Ph.D.)
Professor : Hajime Hori (Ph.D.)
Assistant Professor : Masahiro Yoshikawa (Ph.D.)
Assistant Professor : Toru Ishidao (Ph.D.)
Research Associate : Yukiko Fueta (Ph.D.)
Research Associate : Sumiyo Ishimatsu (Ph.D.)
Research Associate : Yukio Tsugeno (Ph.D.)

Focus of research

Study of substances related to carcinogen in the outdoor and indoor air environment
Biological monitoring of exposure levels for toxic chemical substances
Mutagenicity test of chemical substances
Synthesis of fluorophosphates and study of their physical and chemical properties
Development of new instruments and equipments for occupational hygiene management in work environments using multicomponent organic solvents (Hajime Hori: Cooperation with Isamu Tanaka and Takako Oyabu, Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Institute of Industrial Ecological Sciences)
More than 400 kind of organic solvents are used in the work place in Japan. In order to improve work environments using organic solvents, adsorption devices are widely used as sampling tubes, air cleaners and respirator cartridges. The performance and characteristics are examined by using a single solvent. However, 80% of organic solvents used in the work places are multicomponent solvents. Therefore, following studies are carried out. - Development of vapor generator for multicomponent organic solvents - Adsorption characteristics of multicomponent organic vapors on activated carbon - Effect of face velocities on the performance of diffusive samplers - Development of new samplers and respirator cartridges with built-in breakthrough detector
Health effects of multicomponent organic solvents (Hajime Hori)
ACGIH recommends that the effect of multicomponent organic solvents on body are evaluated as additive. However, it is not clear whether the effect is additive or multiplicative. In order to study health effect of multicomponent organic vapors, vapors are exposed to rats by inhalation, and metabolic rate of solvents in mixed exposure is compared with that in single exposure.
Establishment of risk assessment system for fibrous and particulate materials; Chemical and physical characters of fibrous and particulate materials, in vitro Toxicity test, in vivo Toxicity test - Intratracheal and Inhalation studies (Hajime Hori and Sumiyo Ishimatsu: Cooperation with Isamu Tanaka, Hiroshi Yamato, Yasuo Morimoto and Takako Oyabu, Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Toshiaki Higashi, Department of Work System and Health, Tohru Tsuda, Department of Occupational Pneumology, Hiroshi Kaji, Department of Health Policy and Management, Hiroshi Kasai, Department of Environmental Oncology, Institute of Industrial Ecological Sciences; Takahiko Kasai, Department of Pathology and Oncology, School of Medicine; Ziro Nambu, School of Health Sciences) *
50,000 or more kinds of chemical substances used for the industrial world in Japan recently. Moreover, several thousands of chemical substances are newly invented every year, there are many inhalable materials in these new substances. It is important to forecast before the health effects with these materials become some problems and to defend the men and the ecosystem from the harm which will be able to happen. The findings from the laboratories or the persons and the evaluations which can have been receieved from the both are made a data base, and the risk assessment system for which the health effects are evaluated by this data base beforehand is borne in this course as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. Screening system for living body influence foresight * The findings in the laboratories are researched as follows. - Making of standard fibers which are inhalable used to experiments - Examination of clearance rate and clearance mechanisms of fibrous and particulate materials from lung The fibers or the particles are recovered from lung after the intratracheal injection or the inhalation, the temporal changes of the number and shape are examined at the time of passing. - Examination of change of pathology in lung generated after the inhalation or the intratracheal injection - Examination of simple method of evaluation for risks of fibrous and particulate materials (Figure 2). The cytokine thought to expose the fiber to the rat alveolar macrophage in vitro and to take part from the alveolar macrophage in the inflammation of the production lung, the fibrosis, and the cancerization are measured by the biological assay method. The animals exposed to the fibrous and particulate materials by the intratracheal injection, and the producted cytokines from the pulmonary tissue and the alveolar macrophages are measured by using molecular biology technique (RT-PCR). The level of DNA lesion with the active oxygen is measured by intratracheal injecting the fiber into the hamster. - Examination of cooperated action on living body of cigarette smoke and mineral fibers The alveolar macrophages from the rats which are exposed to the cigarette smoke in vivo are exposed to the mineral fiber in vitro, the produced activators are measured by using the molecular biology technique. * The fibers used by these experiments are asbestos (chrysotile, crocidolite and amosite), glass fibers, refractory ceramic fibers, potassium octatitanate whiskers, magnesium sulfate whiskers, graphite whiskers and aramid fibers, the particles are the powder of silica, calcium carbonate and Sakurajima ashes. Figure 2. Cytokine which affects lung disturbance by inhaled fiber and the mechanism.
Environmental management system in enterprise and its international standard (Tohru Futawatari) *
ISO assumes that issues an international standard concerning an environmental management system of the enterprise in 1996. In an environmental management system in enterprise, the enterprise is to try to work on environmental measures voluntarily under a social responsibility. * The questionnaire investigation by which the enterprise is targeted is done and grappling of the enterprise with an environmental problem and the correspondence situation of an environmental management system, etc. are clarified. Moreover, by the problem which undertakes the acquisition of an international standard and the effect of acquisition are examined.
Research concerning relation between industrial structure and environmental load generation of China (Tohru Futawatari)
* Various environmental problems have become aggravated with remarkable economic development in China. This research is the one examining the exhaust structure of environmental pollutant in China from the relation to an industrial structure and assuming a help of an environmental problem solving. * An industrial structure in China is analyzed based on regional distribution of each industry which centers on an industrial section. The exhaust situation of the environmental pollutant from these industrial sections is examined on the environmental statistics. The relation between these is comparing examined, and the strategy of the coexisting achievement of economic development and environmental maintenance in China is considered.

Key words:: Environmental pollution, Biological monitoring, Workload, Methanogens,Work environment control, Occupational health engineering, Multicomponent organic solvents, Environmental risk, Bioaerosols, Inhalation Toxicology

The development of the simple measurement method of the toxic chemical substance and the biological monitoring monitor, the methods of the individual exposure level and the mutagenicity of the chemical substance are examined.
Various workload assessment techniques are investigated by multidisciplinary studies. Psychophysiological measures (mainly cardiovascular autonomic functions), subjective measures and performance are used for the evaluation of workload induced by mental tasks.
Phosphorus is believed to be the primary limiting nutrient in lakes. We study the behavior of phosphorus compounds in the environmental water and the mechanism of eutrophication. In this context, we synthesize a series of fluorophosphates and study their physical and chemical properties.

Profile of staff

update March 13, 2009, edited by Shimpei Yamada