Recently, patient safety has become a social concern in Japan. Even though cases of “incidents” and “accidents” by interns have been collected and analyzed in each hospital, few published reports have concerned teaching hospitals. The purpose of this study was to identify the incidence of “incidents” and “accidents” by first-year and second-year interns in Japan.
1) In August 2005, a questionnaire was mailed to 231 interns at 14 teaching hospitals. A total of 192 interns participated in this study, with a response rate of 83.1%.
2) The number of cases of “incidents” and “accidents” involving interns since the start of their training was collected.An “incident” was defined as an error that was prevented before occurrence, whereas an “accident” was defined as an unplanned, unexpected, and undesired event with adverse consequences.
3) Among first-year interns, “incidents” occurred at a rate of 0.79 per resident-month (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.30-1.28), while “accidents” were observed at a rate of 0.13 per resident-month (95% CI: 0.06-0.20).
4) Among second-year interns, “incidents” occurred at a rate of 0.24 per resident-month (95% CI: 0.14-1.34), and “accidents” were observed at a rate of 0.06 per resident-month (95% CI: 0.01-0.11).
5) There was no significant difference in the number of cases of “incidents” and “accidents” in regards to sex, age, or the number of beds of teaching hospitals.

The number of fatalities in Japan attributable to lung cancer exceeded 50000 in 2001. It is socially desirable that various markers, which can be utilized for the prevention of lung cancer, be established. We believe that smoking or exposure to carcinogens in air induces mutations in bronchial and alveolar epithelia, leading to the development of lung cancer. It would be useful to have markers of individual differences in susceptibility to chemical carcinogen-induced lung cancer 1) to identify genetic polymorphisms of enzymes metabolizing chemical carcinogens and 2) to investigate the expression of enzymes metabolizing chemical carcinogens. In this paper, we review CYP expression in the bronchial epithelium. CYP1, CYP2 and CYP3 are expressed in the bronchial epithelium. We also show the relationship between the genetic polymorphisms of cytochrome P450 (CYP) and a person's susceptibility to chemical carcinogen-induced lung cancer. We demonstrate the relationship between cigarette consumption and the CYP expression profile in the bronchial epithelium. To maintain and promote public health, we must apply evidence, such as CYP polymorphisms and CYP profiles to disease prevention and also to aggressively advance evidence-based prevention (EBP) of lung cancer.