1) Medical ethics is important in medical education. A questionnaire survey of medical ethics education was conducted at university departments of medicine and at medical colleges in Japan and Germany.
2) The Declaration of Helsinki and war crimes committed by physicians were included in the medical ethics education of most university departments of medicine and medical colleges in Germany but of few in Japan.
3) It is important to continue research into the history of physicians' participation in the 15 years of war and to prepare teaching materials, including primary sources and texts, about war and medicine that can be used in medical ethics education.

With the aim of clarifying issues related to the prevention of agricultural machineinduced injuries in Shiga Prefecture, we investigated, based on insurance reports, the yearly occurrence of injuries caused by agricultural machines for the period from 1982 to 1991.
During this period, there were 914 cases of agricultural machine-induced injuries involving men and 288 cases involving women. The greatest number of cases, occurred in 1983 with 144, after which the number leveled off at about 100 annually. The main types of agricultural machinery linked to injuries were combines, mowers, tractors and tillers. Injuries caused by combines, tractors and tillers decreased in number or remained the same, while those by tillers increased. From 1989 to 1991, the proportion of victims in the over-60 age group was the highest of any age group. Moreover, to be noted is the fact that this was higher than the proportion of the over-60 age group among those engaged in agriculture in Shiga Prefecture. Injuries due to the handling and operating of combines and tractors decreased but there was no decrease in the number of injuries during threshing and tilling operations. The increase in injuries involving mowers is thought to be partially attributable to the increased number of mowers in use and their increased frequency of use in expanding border levees on slopes. To prevent injuries due to mowers, it will be necessary both to improve the machines and work environment, and introduce protective devices.

Health problems of the farmers were surveyed in two districts where progressed mechanization, green hause culture or other improved management systems were introduced.
The following results were obtained:
1. Long daily working hours remain as before, therefore, sleeping hours and hausehold hours in female are shortened in busy seasons.
2. By introduction of joint management or cooperative manegement working hours of female farmers were shortened in some cases, but not enough.
3. New health hazards as noise, vibration, toxic chemicals, continuing of forced posture, forced repetitive motion of hands and arms are being marked.
4. High incidence of subjective symptoms relating to their acute or chronic fatigue were obserbed in most type of agriculture, which were considered to indicate that modernization of agricultural production had been promoted in lacking of consideration for farmer's health.

A questionnaire survey and patch testing on skin disorders were conducted on 20 chrysanthemum growers (15 males and 5 females) in the Kohoku district of Shiga Prefecture in order to clarify the etiology and make a plan for prevention. The results were as follows;
1) Thirteen subjects suffered from skin disorders and 8 of them had contacted dermatitis since they started the cultivation of chrysanthemum.
2) It was suggested that the skin disorders might be associated with such types of work as “lower -leaves pruning, ” “harvesting” and “shipping, ” during which they were closely in contact with chrysanthemum. However, our survey found that most the subjects paid less attention to chrysanthemum than pesticides to prevent skin disorders.
3) The patch test found 10 out of the 13 subjects who had suffered from skin disorders manifested sensitization reactions to chrysanthemum or pesticides and 7 of them to both.
Dermatologically, the disorders were diagnosed as allergic contact dermatitis caused by chrythanthemum or pesticides, but it was difficult to clarify which was the main factor of contact dermatitis.
4) In order to prevent contact dermatitis among chrythanthemum growers, hygienic education on the sensitizing activity of chrysanthemum and guidance on effective protection against chrysanthemum and pesticides are needed.

OBJECTIVESTo investigate the dependency of temporary threshold shift of vibratoty sensation (TTS(v)) in fingertip on hand-arm vibration exposure period.

METHODSSix healthy students were instructed to grip a vibrating or nonvibrating handle in the experimental room. The gripping force was 40 N. The vibratory sensation threshold at 125 Hz was measured before and after the exposure in the exposed middle fingertip. The exposure vibration was vertical and the 1/3 octave-band vibration with had a central frequency of 200 Hz and an intensity of 39.2 m/s(2). The exposure periods were 8, 15, 30, 60, 120, 240 and 600 s. TTS(v,t) was evaluated as the difference in vibratory sensation threshold between immediately before and t seconds after the exposure.

RESULTSTTS(v) recovered exponentially as in several previous studies and its use enabled us to estimate the time constant and TTS(v,0). TTS(v,0) with vibration exposure was significantly larger than that without it. The regression analysis of the relationship between vibration exposure period (T) and TTS(v,0) (T) for each subject confirmed the good fit of the equation TTS(v,0)(T)=B(0)+B(1) (*)Log(10)(T), where B(0) and B(1) are the calculated constants (adjusted R(2)=0.56-0.87). The time constants did not show such a clear dose effect relationship of exposure period as TTS(v,0).

CONCLUSIONThe dependency of TTS(v,0) on vibration exposure period was asymptotically proportional to the logarithm of gripping period. To more quantitatively confirm the relationship of the time constants for recovering time course of TTS(v), it may be necessary to improve the measurement method for TTS(v).