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News Report-Medical Geology(A-C 1 News Reports News Reports 1 Moreover, Bob and Jose had developed a popular short course on the health impacts of The Medical Geology revolution—The trace elements and metal ions that was easily modified to suit the objectives of the IUGS evolution of an IUGS initiative Medical Geology Working Group. Bob Finkelman and Jose Centeno pre- sented a one-day short course at the 2001 Introduction a descriptor of this environmental health sub- COGEOENVIRONMENT meeting in In December 2003 Episodes published an discipline. The next meeting of the Working Lusaka, Zambia followed by a one-day ses- article entitled “Medical Geology: New Rel- Group took the form as a workshop in Upp- sion at the nearby University of Zambia. The evance in the Earth Sciences” by Bowman, sala, Sweden in 1998. Discussions focused excitement generated at both venues was a Bobrowski, and Selinus. This paper was just on the feasibility of preparing a new textbook convincing demonstration that the medical one early example of the interest and excite- on medical geology. In September 2000, geology short course would be a powerful ment sparked by this emerging field of med- about 50 people participated in a meeting and tool with which to advance the objectives of ical geology—the impacts of geologic mate- workshop again in Uppsala. A two-day sem- the IUGS Working Group. A proposal was rials and geologic processes on animal and inar was held on medical geology “The Geo- then developed to bring this short course to human health. Medical geology attempts to chemical Environment and Human Health” developing countries having critical medical bring together geoscientists and biomed- resulting in a proceedings volume (Skinner geology problems. The proposal was submit- ical/public health researchers to address a and Berger 2002). The workshop participants ted to the International Commission on Sci- range of environmental health problems. discussed the future work of the group, entific Unions (ICSU) providing a $50,000 Much of the impetus for the resurgance of newsletters, an internet home page, generat- grant to support a small number of medical interest in medical geology was a direct ing other informational material, and pub- geology short courses for 2002–2003. This result of support and encouragement from lishing an interdisciplinary book on medical was the first ICSU grant awarded for any the International Union of Geological Sci- geology for a broad multidiciplinary audi- IUGS activitity. ences (IUGS) and its former Commission on ence. As a result of its significant achieve- Geologic Sciences for Environmental Plan- In 2000 the International Geologic Cor- ments, the COGEOENVIRONMENT Work- ning (COGEOENVIRONMENT). This man- relations Programme (IGCP) established a ing Group on Medical Geology was given uscript will review the recent evolution of new project “IGCP 454 Medical Geology”. Special Project status in March 2002 to oper- medical geology, from its initial insertion as IGCP projects are jointly sponsored by ate directly under the IUGS. a COGEOENVIRONMENT Working UNESCO (United Nations Education, Scien- Group to its current status as a global Associ- tific and Cultural Organization) and IUGS. Medical geology short ation with thousands of proponents world- The IGCP 454 project was chaired by Olle courses—spreading the message wide. We will also briefly speculate about Selinus with co-chairs Peter Bobrowsky With the support of IUGS, COGEOENVI- the future of this exciting new field stimu- (Canada) and Ed Derbyshire (UK). The pri- RONMENT, USGS, AFIP, SGU, and the lated by the IUGS. mary aim of the IGCP project was to bring host countries, the ICSU money was used to together scientists in developing countries fund many more short courses than had been A brief history working on medical geology issues with their proposed. (Figure 1–2) These courses led by Although geologic factors play key roles in a colleagues in other parts of the world. The range of environmental health issues that project focused on capacity building, provid- impact the health and well-being of billions ing training as well as exchange of informa- of people worldwide (Bowman et al., 2003) tion, research and laboratory experiences. there is a general lack of understanding of the This initiative provided, for the first time, the importance of these factors on animal and opportunity for scientists (geoscientists, human health amongt the general public, the physicians, geographers, veterinarians, etc.) biomedical/public health community, and from developed and developing countries to even within the geoscience community. The come together in a truly international and limited extend of interdisciplinary coopera- inter-disciplinary forum (geoscientists, tion and communication among these area physicians, veterinarians, etc.) and to iden- has restricted the ability of scientists and tify and tackle significant environmental public health workers to solve a range of health problems. compelx environmental health problems. In In 2000, Bob Finkelman, a geoscientist Figure 1 Short course in Brazil. response to this situation, in 1996 the IUGS then with the U.S. Geological Survey commission COGEOENVIRONMENT (USGS) and Jose Centeno, a chemical toxi- Jose Centeno, Bob Finkelman and Olle Seli- established an International Working Group cologist with the U.S. Armed Forces Institute nus have been presented at 32 occasions all on Medical Geology led by Olle Selinus of of Pathology (AFIP) joined the COGEOEN- over the world (see list below) and have been the Geological Survey of Sweden (SGU). VIRONMENT Working Group and the attended by more than two thousand stu- The primary aim of the Medical Geology IGCP 454 project. Since 1996 Jose and Bob dents and professionals with backgrounds in Working Group was to increase the aware- had been working independently on medical geoscience, biomedical/public health sci- ness of this issue among geoscientists, med- geology on issues that parallelled and com- ence, enviromental science, geography, engi- ical specialists, and the general public. plemented the objectives of the IUGS sup- neering, chemistry, etc. As part of the scien- Since the establishment of the ported activities. Their work on arsenic tific program for these short courses local COGEOENVIRONMENT Working Group (Centeno et al., 2002 a and b, Tchounwou et scientists are invited to describe medical on Medical Geology in 1996 there has been al., 2003, and fluorine poisoning from resi- geology work going on in their regions and rapid development of this field. In October dential coal combustion (Belkin et al., 1977 in some courses students were encouraged to 1997 the Working Group met in Vale, Col- and 2003, Wang et al., 2004), in China and present their work as posters. orado, USA during the Fourth International Balkan Endemic Nephropathy (Feder et al., The aim of the short courses is to share Symposium on Environmental Geochem- 1991, Orem et al., 1999, Tatu et al., 1998) the most recent information on the relation- istry. At this meeting the term “Medical had attracted much positive attention ship between toxic metal ions, trace ele- Geology” was adopted by the participants as (Finkelman et al., 2001 and a note in the Feb- ments, minerals, etc. and their impact on the ruary, 2002 issue of Scientific America). environmental and public health issues. The Episodes, Vol. 30, no. 3 September 2007 2 2 Medical Geology—A • A book, Geology to Health, published by Global Affair Oxford University Press, covered all the One of the first activi- presentations given at the meeting in Upp- ties of the IUGS Med- sala in 2000 (Skinner, Berger 2000). ical Geology Working • A first special issue of Environmental Geo- Group was to establish chemistry and Health devoted to medical and maintain communi- geology activities in developing countries cations with an audi- has been published (Vol. 29, No.2) and a ence dispersed through- second special issue is in preparation. out the world, many sci- • Special issue of the journal AMBIO (Vol- entists in developing ume 36(1), February 2007) published a countries with limited series of papers on medical geology. access to communica- • Special issue of BRGM Geosciences, vol 5 tion capabilities. The (March 2007), dedicated to geosciences Working Group estab- and health published a series or papers on Figure 2 Short course in Egypt. lished a Medical Geol- medical geology ogy web site • For additional publications of the IUGS scientific topics of the course include envi- (http://www.medicalgeology.org). This web- Medical Geology Working Group see the ronmental toxicology, environmental pathol- site is regularly updated and is a key source reference list at the end of this article. ogy, geochemistry, geoenvironmental epi- of information on the subject. The Working (Berger et al 2001, Bunnell 2004, Ceruti et demiology, extent, patterns and conse- Group also produces a newsletter twice a al 2001, Dissanayake 2004, Kinniburgh, quences of exposures to toxic metal ions, and year edited by Dave Elliott, from Canada. Smedley 2001, Kousa et al 2004, Selinus analysis of geologic and biologic materials. The newsletter is distributed to all members 2004). The courses, generally 2 to 3 days in of the working group. Currently, all issues of length, are intended for anyone interested in the newsletter can be accessed by visiting the For the first time there was a paper on the effects of natural materials and natural Medical Geology web site. medical geology in Scientific American. This geological events on animal and human Nearly 1,000 people signed up as corre- was published in February 2002, covering health. An important objective of the courses sponding members of the Medical Geology health effects of coal burning. Bob Finkel- is to provide an opportunity for forming con- Working Group from more than 90 countries man was active in this. tacts and networks between professionals around the globe. Recently, two books on Medical Geol- working in different countries and on differ- ogy have been published, one from India ent aspects of environmental health issues.
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