The main objective of the present paper is to explore the effects of radiation exposure on the inhabitants near the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Tests Site (SNTS), Kazakhstan. Our research team of the Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine, Hiroshima University, started in 2002 to conduct a field research study using questionnaire surveys. The present paper attempts to clarify health effects and mental problems on the inhabitants by using our questionnaire surveys. Among the responses to our survey, the present paper focuses upon responses to the questions concerning their health and mental problems. The data in Semipalatinsk have been compared with the results obtained in a similar survey conducted by Hiroshima and Nagasaki cities. The results show: (1) 33% of the residents replied that they felt bad or had very bad health conditions. (2) 70% of the residents strongly recognized a causal relationship between their bad health conditions and the nuclear tests. (3) The diseases that over 30% of respondents possessed are arthralgia/ lower back pain/ arthritis, high-blood pressure, heart disease and digestive system disease. (4) Acute radiation injuries from 1949 to 1962 that over 20% of respondents experienced were headaches and general malaise. (5) Concerning their mental condition, 22% of respondents felt easily frustrated and agitated and 21% experienced nightmare.

Background Vitamin D has been reported to affect both innate, and acquired immunity with immune cells such as dendritic cells having the vitamin D receptors. The co-occurrence of the high prevalence of allergic diseases and vitamin D deficiency globally documented in recent decades, has prompted a hypothesis on whether there is a reasonable association between them. Objective To investigate the association between serum vitamin D deficiency and allergic symptoms. Methods Historical cohort. On a cohort study for the association between desert dust exposure and allergic symptoms in 3,327 pregnant women during spring and fall in 2011–2013 in Japan conducted as an adjunct study to the Japan Environment and Children’s Study, we promptly acquired subjects’ daily allergic symptom scores by sending a web-based questionnaire to each participant on some days. Of the 29,434 answers provided by 3,327 participating pregnant women, we extracted 13,356 answers from 1,475 pregnant women that were answered within a 3-month period after blood samplings. And we measured 25(OH)D levels on those samples to investigate the association between their vitamin D deficiency (serum 25(OH)D < 20ng/mL) and the occurrence of any allergic symptom (allergic symptom score> 0) within 3 months. Results Serum 25(OH)D was less than 20ng/mL in 1,233 of 1,745 samples (70.7%). The adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for occurrence of any allergic symptom in deficient cases compared with non-deficient cases was 1.33 (95% CI: 1.07–1.64, p = 0.01). Further, vitamin D deficiency significantly enhanced the risk increase at desert dust events and at pollen exposure (p-values for interaction <0.1). Conclusion We confirmed the association between serum vitamin D deficiency and allergic symptoms in Japanese pregnant women.

The Trivers–Willard hypothesis predicts that females in good condition should bear more sons rather than daughters in certain mammals, including humans. This study tests the hypothesis by using 66,638 childbirth records from a national birth cohort survey in current Japan. Our analyses showed that, contrary to the hypothesis, indicators of parental condition, such as mother’s age, body mass index, job status, education level, medical history, or household income, had few statistically significant effects on infant sex at birth. In previous studies investigating the Trivers–Willard hypothesis, the results have been quite mixed and inconclusive. We discuss some theoretical and methodological challenges towards a precise understanding of the hypothesis in human populations.

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