July 2012 MEDICAL GEOLOGY NEWSLETTER International Medical Geology Association Newsletter No. 20 ISSN 1651-5250 HIGH CHAPTER ACTIVITIES: THE LARGEST NEWSLETTER YET Inside this issue: MESSAGE FROM THE 2 CHAIRMAN MEDICAL GEOLOGY IN 3 THE NEWS: OLD AND NEW FROM THE EDITOR 4 CHAPTERS 5 REPORTS 10 AWAITING APPROVAL 26 POSSIBLE CHAPTERS 27 NOTICES 28 PAST EVENTS 29 UPCOMING EVENTS 32 SHORT ARTICLES 34 Participants of the first conference in medical geology in the Republic of Bel- arus. Minsk, BelNIGRI, February 28, 2012. ARITCLE: OPEN-PIT MIN- 50 ING IN ARGENTINA NEW IMGA CONFERENCE LOGO See page 4. MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN Dear Friends and Colleagues on Medical Geology: Welcome to the 20th edition of the International Medical Geology Association (IMGA) Newsletter, which marks a significant achievement on the development of medical geology worldwide. Since its inception in 1999, our Newsletter has aimed at keeping our global IMGA community informed about the most recent re- search advances on this emerging multidisciplinary field of medical geology. Today, our goals remain the same, as has been amply demonstrated by the increased number of publications, conference and educational activities, and research programs conducted by our Chapters worldwide; many of these activities are high- lighted throughout this 20th edition of our Newsletter. With over 15 IMGA Chapters worldwide, IMGA is continuously expanding its membership, reaching over 320 members during the first part of 2012. Today, we are proud to welcome our newly established chapters in South Africa (under the leadership of Prof. Hassina Maori, University of Johannesburg), Denmark (led by Dr. Peter Appel), N.I.S. (led by Dr. Iosif Volfson), United States (led by Ms Brittany Merola, Duke University), and Mexico (led by Prof. Hector Rubio, University of Chihuahua). Working together with our regional Chap- ters, IMGA will be contributing actively to several international upcoming conferences in 2012 including the 34th International Geological Congress to be held in Brisbane, Australia in August 2012, the 9th International Symposium on Environmental Geochemistry to be held in Aveiro, Portugal in August 2012, and the 2012 SINO-European Symposium on Environment and Health to be held in Galway, Ireland in July 2012. Addition- ally, plans for the organization of our 5th International Conference on Medical Geology (MEDGEO2013) are well underway. The dates for MEDGEO2013 have been announced for the week of August 25-29, 2013 in Washington, DC. Please visit our website for the most recent updates on our main conference. This year we extend a warm welcome to the International Registry of Pathology (IRP) as one of our affiliated organizations and sponsors of our MEDGEO International Conference Series. IMGA and IRP share a com- mon bond in our missions to pursue global education opportunities and outreach for the medical, earth sci- ences, environmental and public health communities. As part of this collaboration, we are proud to announce the establishment of a research grant program to be titled IMGA Gardner Research Grants (in honor and mem- ory of our good friend and IRP President, Dr. William A Gardner), to support research opportunities for gradu- ate students interested in medical geology. More information on this IMGA-IRP program will be posted soon in our website at http://www.medicalgeology.org . With these developments and successes in mind I want to express my appreciation and the appreciation of the As- sociation to Dr. Eduardo Santini (Argentina), our medical councilor for the last two years. Eduardo’s dedicated and committed service to our Association was outstanding in establishing the Argentine Chapter on Medical Geology and contributing to the development of medical geology in South America. At the same time I wish to welcome Dr. Diego Fridman (Argentina), as our incoming medical councilor who will join the Executive Committee and help to continue the upward trend of IMGA. Diego’s training as a physician with expertise in clinical and epidemi- ological research will certainly stimulate our interactions with the biomedical public health community. As we continue our trajectory for another successful decade of Medical Geology advances, I would like to thank each one of you for the opportunity that you have provided to me to serve as the Chairman of IMGA and to have had one of those rare opportunities in life to be part of something truly unique and genuinely special. Respectfully, Jose A. Centeno, Chairman, International Medical Geology Association Page 2 MEDICAL GEOLOGY NEWSLETTER MEDICAL GEOLOGY IN THE NEWS: OLD AND NEW! From: Karin Ljung Björklund, [email protected] For fun, I checked "Medical Geology" on Google's Ngram and found a reference to it from as early as 1834, in Vol. 25 of the Americal Journal of Medicine: “Medical Geology - At some future day I have no doubt that we shall discover that there is such a science as medical geology viz that certain strata are as foundation ground for human habitations much more liable to be affected with certain causes of diseases than others and we shall probably not only know the fact but ascertain the cause and the remedy. The county of Norfolk has long been famous or infamous for the astonishing num- ber of patients affected with the stone. nothing has hitherto been done to investigate the cause. The earth I have long since been persuaded contains within itself agents destined to affect future changes of the solid surface and also of the atmosphere .The pestilence and earthquake which reigned together for seventy years during the reign of Justinian and depopulated the fairest portion of the civilized world were doubtless the result of certain subterranean laws which regulate its internal economy laws known only to its creator.” http://books.google.se/books? id=gOhQAAAAYAAJ&hl=sv&hl=sv&pg=PA182&img=1&zoom=3&sig=ACfU3U1TOlzM7mA8SHWRUzVtj KRYa4qsvA&ci=159%2C581%2C749%2C486&edge=0 From: Bob Finkelman We made the cut! In the January 2012 issue of Earth magazine the readers were asked: How can geoscentists help society? The fifth most common response was: “By warning of health dangers from natural resources”. In my opinion this response represents a significant increase in the awareness and acceptance of Medical Geol- ogy by the geoscience community. By the way, the first four responses were predicting future climate change, finding and developing natural resources, predicting and warning about natural disasters, and mitigating cli- mate change through geoengineering. Two issue that have been central to geology for centuries and two deal- ing with the hot topic of climate change. Bob MEDICAL GEOLOGY ON FACEBOOK Members who use Facebook should become friends of Medical Geology. https://www.facebook.com/pages/International-Medical-Geology-Association-IMGA/217954944942790 This Facebook site will be used to provide information on MEDGEO2013 in Washington. Page 3 MEDICAL GEOLOGY NEWSLETTER FROM THE EDITOR A 20th edition of the Medical Geology newsletter may not be a major milestone, but it can probably be consid- ered to be significant. The newsletter has grown in size and this is the largest edition so far, much of the in- crease being due to the Chapter Reports, ably compiled by Fiona Fordyce. This edition has new section, Short Articles, that lets IMGA members know what others are doing. A Short Article does not have to be a completed piece of work and I encourage members to submit notes to say that “I am working on this …”. Reports of completed work and longer articles are also welcome. The Editorial Com- mittee has also discussed the idea of thematic newsletters and we are open to ideas. Anyone submitting material for the newsletter should read Section 8 on Newsletter Policy in the Medical Ge- ology Policy Book at: http://www.medicalgeology.org/pages/public/imga/Policy%20book.pdf. The Editor would like to note a couple of points from the policy: Although some review is carried out, the newsletter is, well … a newsletter, and does not claim to be, and is not a fully refereed journal. It is the author’s responsibility to ensure that material submitted is not under copyright or that a copyright holder has given formal permission to republish in the newsletter. Further information will be provided in the next newsletter. Published articles may be referenced using the IMGA Newsletter ISSN Number as “ISSN: 1651-5250”. The newsletter is scheduled to be published twice a year, in June and December, although publication may be delayed for various reasons. (for this issue, partly by the editor’s personal affairs following on his retirement!) Early submission is encouraged. Submission date for Publication date Articles Other material Newsletter March 15th April 15th June 15th Newsletter September 15th October 15th December 15th David Elliott, IMGA Newsletter Editor, [email protected] IMGA CONFERENCE LOGO IMGA is proud to announce the newly adapted logo for our International Confer- ence on Medical Geology. The logo was originally unveiled during the 4th Inter- national Conference on Medical Geology in Bari, Italy, and it is a contribution from the Italian Chapter on Medical Geology. The logo was designed based on an artistic expression from Giuseppe (Beppe) Fiore (right). The bottom part of the logo (in brown colour) symbolizes our planet Earth (Geology), the four semi- curved lines (in green) coming off the Earth symbolize the four elements (plants, water, animals and air), gaining their strength from the Earth. Symbolizing the medical side is the Rod of Asclepius (or the Aesculapius) displayed in the centre of the logo and demonstrating a direct and dynamic interaction with the Earth. Page 4 MEDICAL GEOLOGY NEWSLETTER CHAPTERS In order to expand and develop the IMGA community world-wide, IMGA is encouraging the establishment of Local Chapters (i.e. groups) within individual countries/regions.