The 33rd International Geological Congress will take place in Oslo in August 2008. ( http://www.33igc.org )
One of the important topics at this extensive conference, hopefully with more than 6000 participants, will be Earth and Health (geology and health).
You are cordially invited to participate in a symposium at the 33rd IGC in Oslo entitled Earth and health - medical geology:
MG-01 Earth and health - medical geology: In memory of Valentin Lukashev Olle Selinus, Eiliv Steinnes, Jane Plant, Lucy Hoareau, Ben Mapani, Robert Finkelman, Theo Davis, Catherine Skinner
Geological factors play key roles in a range of environmental health issues that impact the health and well-being of billions of people worldwide but there is a general lack of understanding of the importance of these factors on animal and human health among the general public, the biomedical/public health community, and even within the geoscience community. Therefore the contributions of this symposium aim to show the importance of geology and geochemistry on health of humans and animals. Suggested themes are: General aspects on medical geology/geomedicine ? Geological processes and health ? Veterinary or animal health and geology. ? Health aspects of elements in ground water ? Chronic diseases (e.g. cardiovascular disease, diabetes etc.) and the natural environment ? Deficiency / toxicity problems and beneficial effects of certain elements.
We would like to invite you to participate in this symposium by making a presentation. If you are able to accept this invitation to contribute, it would be most helpful if you could submit a preliminary abstract to the organisers and to us before the deadline 1 February 2008.
There is also the Geohost Programme funded by the 33rd IGC. The Organising Committee will help individual scientists mainly from developing countries to attend the Congress by partially subsidising their expenses.
Deadlines to remember:
15 December 2007: Geohost application
1 February 2008: Deadline for Abstract submission and field trip registration
31 March 2008: Registration fee deadline for inclusion of accepted abstract in programme
March 2008: Timetable for symposia, excursions, etc. on the web
15 April 2008: End of early registration and payment
May 2008: Detailed programme on the web – Final timetable for the programme
15 July 2008: End of intermediately priced registration
After 15 July 2008: Registration fee
July 2008: Abstracts available on the website
August 2008: Programme (hard copy) and Abstracts (CD) for all participants
We look forward to hearing from you soon, and please contact us if you have any queries.
With best regards,
Olle Selinus, Eiliv Steinnes, Anne Kousa.
Coordinators of the symposias on Earth and Health
For your information there will be several interesting symposias on Earth and Health at this conference. For details, please go to the website www.33igc.org .
Symposia
There will be several interdisciplinary symposia under the framework of International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE) (Coordinators Selinus, Steinnes, Kousa)
MGH-01 Earth and health - medical geology: In memory of Valentin Lukashev Olle Selinus, Eiliv Steinnes, Jane Plant, Lucy Hoareau, Ben Mapani, Robert Finkelman, Theo Davis, Catherine Skinner
MGH-02 Groundwater - Geopollution, contamination and health aspects Jonas Satkunas, Anne Kousa, Shrikant D. Limaye, Hisashi Nirei, Kunio Furuno (AGID, IUGS-GEM)
MGH-03 Emerging issues in geotoxicology - other aspects of medical geology Philip Weinstein, José Centeno
MGH-04 Mineral dust in aerosols and potential health implications: A contribution to medical geology Edward Derbyshire, Johann Engelbrecht
MGH-05 Quantitative aspects of medical mineralogy A. Umran Dogan, Meral Dogan
Half-day symposium to set out the key questions posed by the IYPE’s Theme Earth and Health
6 Invited speakers, half a day. Facilities for linked poster session can be made.
Theme of the Day
Major aspects of Earth Science that are particularly relevant for society today will be highlighted during the 33rd IGC. Seven themes have been selected for particular emphasis. They are all related to the priorities of the International Year of Planet Earth and will involve specially invited speakers.
One of the themes is Monday 11 August:
Water, human health and the environment
The daily schedule for the ‘Themes of the Day’ are being built up around lunch-time Plenary Lectures, the ‘Norsk Hydro Lecture’ preceded by morning sessions of related Geoscience. Afternoon sessions will focus on the relevance of the theme for society and include social, economic, political and other aspects. A Panel Debate and Press Conference will be held at the end of the day.
Short courses
There will be two short courses held in medical geology:
SCS-02 Medical geology Olle Selinus, Edward Derbyshire, Jose Centeno, Robert Finkelman
The scope of this short course in medical geology is to share the most recent information on the relationship between impacts of toxic metal ions, trace elements, natural dusts, and their impact on the environmental and public health issues. The scientific topics of the short course will include environmental toxicology, environmental pathology, geochemistry, geoenvironmental epidemiology, extent, patterns and consequences of exposures to toxic metal ions and dust in the general environment (with the stress on the water quality), biological risk assessment studies, modern trends in metal analysis and updates on the geology, toxicology and pathology of metal ion and dust exposures. The course in different lengths and versions have been held with great success since 2001 in almost 40 countries. Many thousand participants have followed the course.
SCS-03 Quantitative aspects of medical mineralogy A. Umran Dogan & Meral Dogan
--------------------------------------------------------------
Medical geology will be highlighted at the International Geological Congress in Oslo in August 2008. About 6000 participants are expected. Participate in the Medical Geology programme!
Symposia
There will be several interdisciplinary symposia under the framework of International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE)
Earth and health/medical geology
Groundwater – geopollution, contamination and health aspects
Emerging issues in geotoxicology –other aspects of geology and health
Geohazard applications of medical geology
Quantitative aspects of medical mineralogy
Half-day symposium to set out the key questions posed by the IYPE’s Theme Earth and Health
6 Invited speakers, half a day. Facilities for linked poster session can be made.
Theme of the Day
Major aspects of Earth Science that are particularly relevant for society today will be highlighted during the 33rd IGC. Seven themes have been selected for particular emphasis. They are all related to the priorities of the International Year of Planet Earth.
One of the themes is Monday 11 August:
Water, human health and the environment
The daily schedule for the ‘Themes of the Day’ are being built up around lunch-time Plenary Lectures, the ‘Norsk Hydro Lecture’ preceded by morning sessions of related Geoscience. Afternoon sessions will focus on the relevance of the theme for society and include social, economic, political and other aspects. A Panel Debate and Press Conference will be held at the end of the day.
Short courses
There will be two short courses held in medical geology:
Medical Geology
Quantitative aspects of Medical Mineralogy
Business meetings
The International Medical Geology Association, IMGA, will have a business meeting where all are invited Sunday August 10. More details will be presented later
Please note that the topics above are tentative. They can be changed according to interest.
For more information contact Olle Selinus, olle.selinus@sgu.se , member of the organising committee and vice president for Sweden