Timişoara, 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: Biology Keywords: Medical geology, Theme: Medical Geology Environmental health, Public health, Year: First year of General Medicine 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 weren’t bad enough, it can also incubate certain diseases. Here is a list of twelve diseases that global warming affects:

1. Avian influenza (bird flu) 2. Babesiosis 3. Cholera 4. Ebola 5. Intestinal and external parasites 6. Lyme disease

7. Plague 8. “Red tides” 9. Rift Valley Fever 10. Sleeping sickness 11. Tuberculosis 12. 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, Nº 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://www-nehc.med.navy.mil/public_health_conference/presentations09/conference_slides/ih/industrial%20hygiene%20session%204/1000-1025%20navy-dust%20talk-hampton-jacenteno.pdf http://www-nmcphc.med.navy.mil/public_health_conference/presentations09/conference_slides/ih/industrial%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-warming-47100803

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 undersökning) http://www.sgu.se/sgu/eng/index.html

Keywords:

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