Timioara, Romania - 13.12.

2009 Victor Babes University of Medicine and Pharmacy

- MEDICAL GEOLOGY - A GLOBALLY EMERGING DISCIPLINE -

Student:

Roganovic Radivoje

Mentor:

Prof. Dr. Calin Tatu

Subject: Theme: Year:

Biology Medical Geology First year of General Medicine

Keywords: Medical geology, Environmental health, Public health, Human health, emerging diseases.

Introduction
Terms: Emerging diseases; new diseases, unknown in the past to the human race. Re-emerging diseases; diseases known to be extinct but resurfacing in the context of global environmental change and technological progress (tuberculosis, malaria, Lyme disease, other infectious diseases caused by antibiotic resistance) Anthropogenic; effects, processes or materials are those that are derived from human activities. The term anthropogenic designates an effect or object resulting from human activity, also used in the context of pollution emissions that are produced as a result of human industry. Geogenic factors are those which originate in the soil, as opposed to those of anthropic origin (anthropogenic). Independent of human activities, most frequently caused by inorganic environmental agents mineral or oligoelement.

Medical Geology is an emerging scientific discipline that examines the impacts that geologic materials and processes have on human and ecosystem health. It is bringing
together the geoscience, biomedical, and public health communities to solve a wide range of environmental health problems.

Medical Geology:
Identifies and characterizes natural and anthropogenic sources of harmful materials in the environment. Predicts the movement and alteration of chemical, infectious, and other disease-causing agents over time and space. Provides an understanding of how people are exposed to harmful materials and describes what can be done to minimize or prevent such exposure.

Medical Geology required that geoscientists and biomedical/public health researchers collaborate on health problems caused or exacerbated by: geologic materials such as: exposure to toxic levels of trace essential and non-essential elements such as arsenic and mercury, rocks, minerals, naturally occurring toxic organic and inorganic compounds in drinking water, petroleum and geologic processes such as identification and affects of volcanic emissions-eruptions, earthquakes and exposure to natural dust and to radioactivity. Medical geology is not strictly an emerging discipline but can be a re-emerging discipline. The relationship between geologic materials such as rocks and minerals and human health has been known for centuries. Ancient Chinese, Egyptian, Islamic, and Greek texts describe the many therapeutic applications of various rocks and minerals and many health problems that they may cause. More than 2,000 years ago Chinese texts describe 46 different minerals that were used for medicinal purposes. Arsenic minerals for example, orphiment (As2S2) and realgar (AsS), were extensively featured in the materia medica of ancient cultures. Health effects associated with the use of these minerals were described by Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.) as as corrosive, burning of the skin, with severe pain..

Goals
In contrast, Medical Geology is today receiving institutional support from many organizations all over the world. Practitioners of Medical Geology have five principal goals: 1) To identify geochemical anomalies in soils, sediments, and water that may adversely impact human and animal health; 2) To identify the environmental causes of known health problems and, in collaboration with biomedical/public health researchers, seek solutions to prevent or minimize these problems; 3) To evaluate the beneficial health effects of geologic materials and process; 4) To reassure the public when there are unwarranted environmental health concerns associated with geologic materials or processes; and 5) To forge links between developed and developing countries to find solutions for environmental health problems.

Understanding and Awareness

For the past several decades there has been a growing awareness of environmental health issues. More and more people in developed and developing countries have been becoming aware of the potential health impacts of environmental pollution. By and large these concerns used to be focused on industrial contamination the pollution spewing into our environment from irresponsible businesses and organizations. However, there has long been a small but active group of researchers who have recognized that natural materials and processes could be as dangerous as the pollution from anthropogenic materials and processes. Interest in Medical Geology has been demonstrated in virtually every country. During the past few years scientific organizations in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Chile, Egypt, Great Britain, India, Ireland, Hungary, Japan, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, Turkey, U.S., Uruguay, Venezuela.

Organizational Support
National and multinational organizations are now taking an active interest in Medical Geology in contrast to the largely individual interest driven activities of past decades. Since 1998 funding for Medical Geology activities has come from the International Union of Geological Sciences, the International Commission of Scientific Unions, UNESCO, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Geological Survey of Sweden, the U.S. Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, National Institute of Health, etc. The U.S. Congress has recently allocated funds to establish a Medical Geology research center in China.

Impacts - Dangerous Threats

Toxicological effects on health from the environment arise from poor air, water and soil quality as a result of contamination. Natural materials also form the foundation of modern civilization and are crucial for almost every aspect of modern living. This interaction with natural materials is often viewed as harmless (Finkelman et al., 2001). However, some geologic materials pose significant health risks that jeopardize individuals, communities and even whole populations (Geotimes Staff, 2001).
Radon from construction materials (granites/pegmatites) Coal use in households in China (fluorosis and arsenosis) Methyl mercury

Climate warming is allowing disease-causing bacteria, viruses and fungi to move into new areas where they may harm species as diverse as lions and snails, butterflies and humans. As if global warming werent bad enough, it can also incubate certain diseases. Here is a list of twelve diseases that global warming affects: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Avian influenza (bird flu) Babesiosis Cholera Ebola Intestinal and external parasites Lyme disease 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Plague Red tides Rift Valley Fever Sleeping sickness Tuberculosis Yellow fever

According to Finkelman et al. (2001), the impacts of geologic materials on human health have been recognized for thousands of years. This developed in response to apprehension of environmental degradation arising out of anthropogenic impacts resulting from industrial technology. Silent Spring (Carson, 1962) is the earliest expression of this apprehension has come to be defined by the health and environment cause-effect framework given in Fig. 1 below by WHO (2000).

Fig. 1 Health and environment cause-effect framework (WHO, 2000)

As you can see in Fig. 1 last column is empty. Action? Fig. 1 is from year 2000 and barely noticeable has been changed during more than nine years. Everything is connected. Planet Earth has its own pollution by volcanic eruptions, radiation, toxic materials, dust If anthropogenic contaminations continue to expand and the impact of human activities on the Earth surface increases, we will be unable to defend and save human population, not to mention other species. Which are almost destroyed just by increasing a planet temperature for a last couple of years.

References:
Internet references:
Geologica Acta, Vol.5, N 3, 2007, 273-281 http://www.geologica-acta.com/pdf/vol0503a05.pdf Theoretical Basis for medical Geology http://www.medicalgeology.org/PDF/MedGeo.pdf Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_geology USGS - U.S. Geological Survey http://energy.er.usgs.gov/health_environment/medical_geology/ Medical Geology: the emergence of a new discipline
Robert B. Finkelman - Department of Geosciences University of Texas Jose A. Centeno - Armed Forces Institute of Pathology Olle Selinus - Geological Survey of Sweden

http://www.ige.unicamp.br/terrae/v2n1-2/terrae_2005_v02n01-02_p03-08_finkelman.pdf Health effects of Dust Military document http://wwwnehc.med.navy.mil/public_health_conference/presentations09/conference_slides/ih/indust rial%20hygiene%20session%204/1000-1025%20navy-dust%20talk-hampton-jacenteno.pdf http://wwwnmcphc.med.navy.mil/public_health_conference/presentations09/conference_slides/ih/ind ustrial%20hygiene%20session%204/0825-0850%20lyles%20sandbox_nehc_2009final.pdf 12 Diseases Global Warming Incubates http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/deadly-dozen-global-warming47100803 Global Warming May Spread Diseases http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/06/20/tech/main512920.shtml

Electronic references:
Medical geology-f.ppt by Prof. Dr. Calin Tatu Environmental Biology-f.ppt by Prof. Dr. Calin Tatu

Printed references:
ESSENTIALS OF MEDICAL GEOLOGY: Impacts of the Natural Environment on Public Health. Free preview/sample of a book. Year 2005.

Useful sites:
IMGA - INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL GEOLOGY ASSOCIATION http://www.medicalgeology.org/ IUGS - International Union of Geological Sciences http://www.iugs.org/ Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center http://www-nmcphc.med.navy.mil/ AFIP - Armed Forces Institute of Pathology http://www.afip.org/ USGS - U.S. Geological Survey http://www.usgs.gov/ SGU - The Geological Survey of Sweden (Sveriges geologiska underskning) http://www.sgu.se/sgu/eng/index.html

Keywords:
Medical geology, Environmental health, Public health, Human health, emerging diseases.