川崎市の大気汚染と住民の肺X線像

Abstract

The concentration of dusts in the air has been assessed by measuring only fallout particles on the roofs or on the open places. No one, however, has measured the suspended dusts which are drifting in the air around the inhabitants. The suspended dusts are so liable to variation by wind or rain that it is difficult to catch them in their whole aspects. I tried to measure the dusts being suspended indoors, outdoors and above the streets in the factory district in Kawasaki City. As a result of these measurements the concentrations were found to be 200-700 particles per cubic centimeter of air. These figures well compare with the values found in the mills or throwing plants of pottery works in Aichi, Gifu, and Mie districts. I suspected that the inhabitants in Kawasaki City were not free from respiratory impairments, for I had ever found some pneumoconiosis-patients among workers in those pottery works. And, I carried out lung X-ray examinations of those who had lived more than ten years in the factory district but had never worked in the dusty environments. I examined 498 people between 1958 and 1966, and found 132 abnormal cases out of them. In brief, these 132 cases had radiological opacities in the lung, which were similar to the appearance of pneumoconiosis. Most of them showed granular opacities (p according to the international classification) and a part of them linear opacities (L according to the international classification). This appearance is not necessarily due solely to the air pollution, but since I have never found such strong opacities in other districts, I think the air pollution as a potent factor.