T.C. Davies
School of Environmental Studies, Moi University, P.O. Box 3900, Eldoret, Kenya
tcdavies@africaonline.co.ke

Abstract

The East and Southern Africa Association of Medical Geology (ESAAMEG) was inaugurated following a resolution passed at the First East and Southern Africa Workshop on Geomedicine (now Medical Geology) held in Nairobi, Kenya in June, 1999. Among other major resolutions passed at that first meeting was the stimulation and intensification of research among the region’s interdisciplinary scientists focusing on the relationship between geoenvironmental factors and geographical distribution of diseases in man and animals. It was also agreed that the Nairobi Workshop should form the first of a workshop series to be continued on a biennial basis.

Although a number of significant achievements on the research front have been accomplished since the first meeting (e.g., vide Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop in Lusaka, Zambia, 2001), consolidated effort aimed at advancing major regional research proposals has only just started to produce results. The Association’s ongoing flagship project on “An East African Geochemical Database for Environmental Applications”, favourably reviewed by the British Geological Survey and the Freiberg Mining Academy, is being considered for additional funding by the IUGS. A project orientation and standardization workshop to review and assess field sampling and analytical methodology as well as to monitor quality assurance, is due to be held in Tanzania in mid 2004.

Other recent and future activities of ESAAMEG were discussed at the Association’s Planning Meeting held in conjunction with the 6th International Seminar on Environmental Geochemistry held at the University of Edinburgh in September, 2003. Proceedings of this Meeting are given in the Minutes dated 5th December, 2003 and include preparations for a Medical Geology Short Course slated for May, 2004 in Tanzania, and the 3rd (Biennial) Workshop on Medical Geology planned for February, 2005 also in Tanzania.