IUGS Initiative on Medical Geology

Submitted to the Excecutive Committee of IUGS

Background

Because of the importance of geological factors on health, and the general lack of understanding the importance of geology in such relationships, the IUGS commission COGEOENVIRONMENT (Commission on Geological Sciences for Environmental Planning) established in 1996 an International Working Group on Medical Geology led from the Geological Survey of Sweden, SGU, with the primary aim of increasing awareness of this issue among scientists, medical specialists, and the general public. In 2000 a new IGCP project was also established by UNESCO; ”IGCP#454 Medical Geology” (also this chaired from SGU (The Geological Survey of Sweden), involving co chairs from Canada (Peter Bobrowsky) and UK (Ed Derbyshire)). The primary aim of the projects were to bring together, at the global scale, scientists working in this field in developing countries with their colleagues in other parts of the world stressing the importance of geoscientific factors that affect the health of humans and animals. The project was potentially capacity building, involving transfer of training as well as mutual exchange of information and experience. This initiative provided, for the first time, the opportunity for leading scientists from developing countries to come together in a truly international and inter-disciplinary way (involving geoscientists, physicians and veterinarians) to identify and tackle real problems of geoenvironment and health

The International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) also sponsored 2002-2003 international short courses in this subject, a cooperation involving SGU, United States Geological Survey and the US Armed Forces of Pathology in Washington DC.

As a result of the significant achievements to date the Commission's Working Group was given a Special Project status by the IUGS. In March 2002 the IUGS announced that the International Working Group on Medical Geology would be assigned Special Project status operating directly under the IUGS. Olle Selinus is Director of this activity. Jose Centeno and Bob Finkelman are Co-Directors. Dave Elliott is editor of the Newsletter.

In 2004 a decision was taken in forming a new association: International Medical Geology Association, IMGA.

Chief accomplishments

1997

Working group meeting in Vale, Denver, USA during the Fourth International Symposium on Environmental Geochemistry. At this meeting the term ”Medical Geology” was proposed and accepted.
1998

Workshop Uppsala, Sweden. Discussions initiated on a proposed book on medical geology.

1999

Geomedicine Seminar at the Geological Survey of Austria, Vienna, Austria

Invited talks were presented at: a Workshop on Environmental Pathology and Public Health for Central America held in Guatemala City, Guatemala; a Workshop on Environmentally Toxic Substances: New Advances and Perspectives, Cuernavaca, Mexico; the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley and the Medical College of Wisconsin, Department of Pathology, and at the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology; the University of Arizona, Tucson; Cantebury Univ., Christchurch, NZ.

2000

A large meeting and workshop was held in Uppsala. About 50 people participated. We had 2 ½ days seminar and 2 ½ days workshop. The workshop discussed the future work of the group, regular news letters, internet home page, other informational material, publishing of an interdisciplinary book on Medical Geology for a wide audience and decision makers. Significant progress has been made on all of the issues discussed. A seminar was also held on Health and the Geochemical Environment, Uppsala, Sweden.

International Geological Congress, Rio de Janeiro. There was a symposium on Geoscience and Health in conjunction with the Congress. We held a meeting of the Working Group and IGCP454. About 40 people attended the meeting and several new members came to the working group.

Invited talks were presented at: the XXIII International Congress of the International Academy of Pathology and the International Congress on Environmental Pathology, Nagoya, Japan; the Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei; the Pacific Basin Conference on Hazardous Waste, Manila, Philippines; University of Delaware; American University; University of Peurto Rico, Mayaguez.

2001

A main meeting was held in Lusaka, Zambia in June (June 27-July1). This meeting was divided into several parts:
? A short course on Metals Health and the Environment, especially for the African countries was held
? A regional East and Southern Africa workshop on Medical Geology, sponsored and partly held by IGCP #454
? Special discussions with the African delegates on the IGCP project #454.
? Medical Geology fieldtrip around Lusaka emphasizing health problems.

During the 2001 annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, Boston, MA, a Pardee Symposium entitled "Medical Geology: an emerging discipline" was held on November 5. The meeting was sponsored by the working group, the GSA Institute for Earth Science and the Environment, US Armed Forces Instiute of Pathology, IUGS, USGS, COGEOENVIRONMENT, Swedish Geological Survey and the Swedish Institute for Metal Biology. The organizers consisted of Dr. Dennis Goldman (GSA), Dr. Peter Bobrowsky (IUGS and International Co-leader of IGCP #454), Dr. Jose Centeno (US AFIP) and Dr. Catherine Skinner (Yale University). The meeting primarily attracted about 150 geologists from a variety of disciplines and focused on broading the appreciation of earth sciences amongst seasoned practioners towards direct societal issues such as human health.

2002

The primary activities during the year 2002 consisted of the organization and implementation of international meetings on Medical Geology in Chile, Russia, Netherlands, USA and Japan, also covering neighbouring countries and regions. Another initiative has also been marketing Medical Geology in different media and also ongoing work with the book Medical Geology to be published through Academic Press. Continuing effort has also been sustained on all contacts, newsletters, website etc.

Three main meetings were held, in February in Santiago de Chile and in June in St Petersburg, Russia. In November a course and a meeting was also held in Japan. In all these cases we had short courses on medical geology and meetings with several local members. In addition to this there have been other meetings and activities. One course was also held in Lima, Peru.

In October a presentation was give by the chairman in Helsinki, Finland. The people attending were all director generals of all geological surveys in Europe.

In June a meeting was held in Washington DC : Healthy Ecosystems - Healthy people, Linkages between biodiversity, ecosystem health and human health, June 2002, Washington DC USA. Joe Bunnell and Jim Zucchetto of the National Academy of Sciences chaired a Working Group on “Medical Geology: Earth Systems, Resource Use and Human Health.” The Group reached consensus on a number of issues, including plans for additional promotion of Medical Geology as a sub-discipline, identification of research priorities, and key recommendations for this rapidly growing field. Among the organization represented by the twenty-four Working Group participants were USGS (incl. Bob Finkelman), US EPA, the ICCP#454 and Geological Survey of Sweden (Olle Selinus), the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (Jose Centeno), the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, University of Zambia (Imasiku Nyambe), University of Michigan, the Canaan Valley Institute, University of Nebraska, University of California at Berkeley, Environment Canada, US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventative Medicine, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Altarum.

In November the first co-chairman presented the project at the XXIV International Congress of the International Academy of Pathology. A special symposium on environmental pathology / medical geology was arranged there. This was a very important meeting because this was the first time medical geology had been presented for this large audience of medics.

In November the first co-chairman received a special invitation from the Royal Norwegian Academy of Sciences to present to it a lecture on medical geology.

The first co-chairman has also been invited to make presentations on medical geology at other meetings, such as:
Ankara, Turkey, congress on Medical Geology and Cancer
11th Quadrennial IAGOD Symposium and Geocongress 2002, Windhoek, Namibia, July, 2002
September, Quebec, ISTERH, International Society for Trace Elements in Humans.
October, MarDel Plata, Argentina, 32nd IAH (International Association of Hydrogeologists).
September, Brazil, 41th Brazilian Geological Congress, Brasilien.

2003

During 2003 the following courses were run:
Lithuania 26-28 May 2003
Montevideo, Uruguay, May 2003
Edinburgh September 2003
Brazil 13-17 October 2003
Australia, 1-3 December 2003
Malaysia December 2003

March 2003. RBF invited to present talk at regional Geological Society of America Meeting in Kansas City.

March 2003. New health minister appointed in Taiwan. Member of the medical geology working group, professor Chen Chien-jen.

April 2003. Ankara, Turkey, Congress on Medical Geology and Cancer.

April 2003. Session on Medical Geology at the EGS-AGU-UUG Joint Assembly, Energy Resources and the Environment, Nice, France

In early April 2003, the U.S. Geological Survey hosted a conference entitled “Natural Science and Public Health – Prescription for a Better Environment.” Nearly 200 people attended the three day conference that was co-sponsored by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and The George Washington University’s School of Public Health.

June 2003 A special symposium on medical geology was organised at the 7th International conference on biogeochemistry of trace metals, in Sweden.

July 14-18 2003 10th International Symposium in Medical Geography, School of Geography, University of Manchester, UK. Sponsoring by the working group.

July 2003. ”Cities on volcanoes”, Hawaii. Organized by the International Volcanic Health Hazard Network. Sponsoring by Medical Geology

September 2003, Brazil, 41th Brazilian Geological Congress, Brazil. Sponsor.

September 2003 In Edinburgh, at the Sixth International Symposium on Environmental Geochemistry, there was an official meeting, a short course and special sessions. Apart from the international short courses on Medical Geology, an annual meeting was held in Edinburgh in September 2004. This was in conjunction with the 6th International Symposium on Environmental Geochemistry. We were able to sponsor the attendance at this meeting of several members.

September 8, 2003. Meeting of The East and Southern Africa Association on Medical Geology. Edinburgh.

2003. September 8. Official IGCP meeting on Medical Geology in Edinburgh.

October 2003 Chilean Geological congress- Medical geology Symposium..

2004

During 2004 the following courses were/will be run:
Budapest, Hungary
Ottawa, Canada
Perth, Australia
India

Participation in the ICSU inititiative ”Science for Health and Well being” in Paris at the French Academy of Medicine. February 2004.

Special sessions on medical geology held at following symposias and congresses:

? 3rd International Conference on Trace Element Speciation in Biomedical, Nutritional and Environmental Sciences
10-13 May 2004, GSF - National Research Center for Environment and Health, Neuherberg, Germany
? 2nd International Symposium on Trace Elements and Minerals in Medicine and Biology, 13-15 May 2004, GSF - National Research Center for Environment and Health, Neuherberg, Germany
? 8th International Symposium on Metal Ions in Biology and Medicine. 18-23 May 2004 Budapest, Hungary
? Second International Congress of Pathology, June 9-12, Iugassu Falls, Brazil
? XXV International Congress of the International Academy of Pathology. October 11-15, 2004: Brisbane, Australia Special Symposium on Medical Geology, Environmental Pathology and Complementary Alternative Medicine has been scheduled as part of the main Scientific Program.

3-4 February 2004. Workshop on Medical Geology. Nagpur, India. Organised by the Geological Survey of India.

22nd European Conference of Society for Environmental Geochemistry and Health (SEGH 2004). University of Sussex, April 5th - 7th 2004. Geochemistry & Health and Medical Geology: into the 21st Century. Fiona Fordyce

August 2004. International Geological Congress in Firenze. One symposium on Medical Geology. Business meetings.

35th Int.Congress on Military Medicine September 12-17, 2004 in Washington, DC. Presentation by Jose Centeno: MEDICAL GEOLOGY: AN EMERGING DISCIPLINE IN SUPPORT OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND MILITARY MEDICINE

First International Symposium on Recent Advances in Environmental Health Research
Center for Environmental Health. College of Science, Engineering and Technology
Jackson State University. Jackson, Mississippi. September 19-23, 2004
One topic is medical geology.

Local working groups

Local working groups have been established in East Africa, Jordan, South East Asia, Russia.

Formal cooperation with societies:

? Society for Environmental Geochemistry and Health, SEGH
? International Society of Medical Geography
? Nordic Working Group on Medical Geography
? Medical Geology Registry at AFIP
? International Association of Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry, Working Group on
? Geochemistry and Disease
? American Registry of Pathology
? Centre for Metal Biology in Sweden
? Geomedical Committee of the Norwegian Academy of Science and letters
? The East and South Africa Association on Medical Geology
? International Society of Doctors for the Environment (ISDE)

Registry of Medical Geology

The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington DC, USA has received approval from the American Registry of Pathology to establish a registry on medical geology. The Registry on Medical Geology serves as the liaison between the medical/pathology community and the earth sciences, environmental and public health professionals. The aims of the Registry on Medical Geology are:

1. to facilitate the interactions between the medical/public health community and the earth sciences, toxicologists, and other related areas;
2. to provide a centralized facility for the sharing of information, materials and research projects on medical geology;
3. to provide opportunities for training (i.e., postdoctoral, postmedical, visiting scientist/professor, etc.) on medical research with particular emphasis on medical geology, environmental and environmental epidemiology research; and
4. to develop educational materials, publications and activities (courses, workshops, symposia, conference) on medical geology research topics.

The National Museum of Health and Medicine

The National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, USA, has unveiled an exhibit highlighting the developing science of medical geology used by its parent organization, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) to study health problems associated with arsenic. The exhibit will run indefinitely. The exhibit, "Research Matters: Environmental and Toxicological Effects of Arsenic," explains how geoscience tools are augmenting the skills of medical and environmental professionals to understand exposure to toxic metals and metalloids such as arsenic.

Promotion

A newsletter for the working group and other interested people is produced. Editor of the newsletter is Dave Elliott, Canada. 8 newsletters have been produced so far. The newsletter is distributed to all officers in the commission and all members of the working group. It is also published on the web site. The newsletter is published twice a year. The newsletter is now printed and distributed to almost 800 persons and institutes and can also be downloaded from the website.

A brochure on medical geology and the IGCP project is in the planning stage. This will be undertaken in cooperation with the Americal Geological Institute (AGI), and will consist of about 40 pages in full colour. The target audience will be the general public, decision makers etc.

Three posters have been developed for international congresses and other occasions.

Geological Society of London has proposed a new journal on medical geology.
Elsevier has proposed a virtual journal on medical geology.

A brochure on medical geology has been made for International Year of Planet Earth.

Other matters

In July 2003 the Director at DG Environment of the European Commission, Prudencio Perera, was informed by dr Elewaut from EuroGeoSurveys on medical geology. The European Commission is starting a new initiative on Environment and Health and one aspect he was not aware of and which he became very interested in was medical geology. Continuing contacts with the European Commission on this.

ICSU has started a new initiative: ICSU Initiative "Science for Health and
Well-being". Medical Geology is going to be involved in this initiative.
The Brazilian National Research Program in Environmental Geochemistry and Medical Geology (PROGRAMA NACIONAL DE PESQUISA EM GEOQUIMICA AMBIENTAL E GEOLOGIA MEDICA - PGAGEM), planned in 2003, coordinated by Servico Geolögico do Brasil - CPRM (Brazil Geological Survey - CPRM), through the Departamento de Gestäo Territorial (Territorial Management Department), subordinated to Diretoria de Hidrologia e Gestäo Territorial (Hydrology and Territorial Management Board of Directors) was created as a multinstitutional, interdisciplinary and multiuse results program. It was elaborated by the Servico Geolögico do Brasil - CPRM (Brazil Geological Survey - CPRM), Universidade de Campinas - UNICAMP(Campinas University), Universidade do Estado de Säo Paulo - USP (Säo Paulo State University), Universidade Federal do Estado do Para - UFPA (Federal University of the State of Para), Universidade Estadual de Londrina - UEL (Londrina State University), Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto - UFOP (Federal University of Ouro Preto), Minerais do Parana - MINEROPAR (Parana Minerals), Instituto Evandro Chagas (Evandro Chagas Institute), Instituto Adolfo Lutz (Adolfo Lutz Institute), Escola Nacional de Saude Publica - ENSP (National School of Public Health), FIOCRUZ and Empresa Brasileira de Agropecuaria - EMBRAPA (Brazilian Agency of Agricultural Research -Soils). PGAGEM, aims at supplying subsidies to the public health all over the Brazilian territory, through the analysis of samples of water, soil, river and lake bottom sediments, in order to identify the presence of elements and compounds that are essential or harmful to human or animal ingestion. In case these elements and compounds are detected in a harmful quantity, their effects over the local population will be assessed by means of clinic diagnosis and laboratory analysis (blood, urine and hair) by the above mentioned medical institutes. Medical geology and IUGS will be clearly promoted and will participate in this important programme.

Publications

Several papers and notes have been published in different journals informing of and marketing the project. The BGS magazine, Earthwise, has for example published a thematic issue on Geology and Health (Earthwise issue 17). Episodes published in 2001 (Vol 24 No 1) a detailed report on the IGCP#454 meeting in Uppsala, Sweden in 2000. AFIPs newsletter in the beginning of 2001 was devoted to medical geology describing this subject and the IGCP project. It was distributed to about 35,000 medics all around the world. The November 2001 issue of Geotimes (American Geological Institute) was fully devoted to the theme Geosciences and Human Health.

For the first time there was a paper on medical geology in Scientific American. This was published in February 2002, covering health effects of coal burning.

“Epidemioecology News”, a new newsletter on medical geology published by USGS.

In November 2002 there was a report on medical geology and an interview with the chairman Olle Selinus in a Sunday issue of Neue Zuricher Zeitung, the largest newspaper in Switzerland.

Selinus, O, 2002. Medical Geology: Method, theory and practice. In Bobrowsky (ed). Geoenvironmental mapping. Balkema press.

Medical Geology: An Emerging Discipline on the Ecosystem-Human Health Interface, Joseph E. Bunnell, USGS, US Department of the Interior

“Geology and Public Health – Closing the Gap,” edited by Cathy Skinner and Tony Berger, has been published by Oxford Press. The book presents the proceedings of the Medical geology conference organized by Olle Selinus in Uppsala, Sweden in September 2000.

Selected peer reviewed chapters in this book:
Natural Dust and Pneumoconiosis in High Asia, Edward Derbyshire
Human Geophagy: a Review of Its Distribution, Causes, and Implications, Peter W. Abrahams
Geological Epidemiology: Coal Combustion in China Robert B. Finkelman et al.
Biogeochemical Cycling of Iodine and Selenium and Potential Geomedical Relevance, Eiliv Steinnes
Environmental Iodine in Iodine Deficiency Disorders, with a Sri Lankan Example, Fiona M. Fordyce et al.
Molybdenosis Leading to Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Swedish Moose, Adrian Frank
A Legacy of Empires? An Exploration of the Environmental and Medical Consequences of Metal Production in Wadi Faynan, Jordan, John Grattan et al.
Health Problems Related to Environmental Fibrous Minerals, Gunnar Hillerdal
Environmental Geochemistry on a Global Scale, Jane A. Plant et al.
Biogeochemical Monitoring in Medical Geology, O. Selinus
Some Environmental Problems of Geomedical Relevance in East and Southern Africa, T. C. Davies
Geochemistry and Vertebrate Bones, H. Catherine W. Skinner
Soil Nutrient Deficiencies in an Area of Endemic Osteoarthritis (Mseleni Joint Disease) and Dwarfism in Maputoland, South Africa, Portia O. Ceruti, Martin Fey, and Justin Pooley
Organic Compounds Derived from Pliocene Lignite and the Etiology of Balkan Endemic Calin A. Tatu et al.

Howard W. Mielke, Ph.D, 2003: A Case Study of the Medical Geology of the Mississippi River Delta: Anthropogenic Processes and the Evolving Environment of New Orleans

Medical Geology – Health and the Environment: Abstracts of presentations by participants of the short course. May 26–28, 2003 Vilnius, Lithuania

Theoretical basis for medical geology, Harwant Singh, University Malaysia Sarawak, 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia

Natural Science and Public Health – Prescription for a better Environment. Abstracts from a conference on April 1-3, 2003, Reston Virginia, convened by USGS.Open File Report 03-097, US Department of the Interior, USGS

Charlotte Ann Bowman, 2003: Urban geochemistry and potential health implications:
Municipality of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.. Master Thesis, University of Victoria.

Bowman, C, Bobrowsky, P, Selinus, O., 2003. Medical Geology: applied relevance in the earth sciences. Episodes December 2003.

Selected peer reviewed chapters from the book Medical Geology, Edited by O Selinus to be printed in October 2004 by Academic Press:

Natural background, Dr Robert Garrett
Volcanic emissions and health, Philip Weinstein, Dr Angus Cook
Radon in air and water, Dr Don Appleton
Arsenic in groundwater and the environment, Dr. Pauline Smedley, D.G Kinniburgh
Fluoride in natural waters – occurrence, controls and health aspects, Mike Edmunds, Pauline Smedley
Water hardness and health effects, MD Eva Rubenowitz-Lundin, Dr Kevin M. Hiscock
The Natural Environment - Selenium Deficiency and Toxicity – Process Related Diseases, Dr Fiona Fordyce
Iodine Geochemistry, Soils and Iodine Deficiency, Prof. Ron Fuge
Geophagy and the involuntary ingestion of soil, Prof Peter Abrahams
Natural aerosolic mineral dusts and human health: potential effects, Dr Ed Derbyshire
Animals and medical geology, Prof Bernt Jones
Environmental epidemiology, Dr. Jesper B. Nielsen, Tina Kold Jensen
Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Databases for Human Health Studies, Joseph E. Bunnell, Alexander W. Karlsen, Timothy M. Shields, Robert B. Finkelman
Use of Remote Sensing in the Study of Diseases, dr Steve Guptill, Chester G. Moore
APPENDIX: REFERENCE VALUES (compiled by Peter Bobrowsky).

Kousa, A., Moltchanova, E., Taskinen, O., Nikkarinen, M., Tuomilehto, J., Karvonen, M., 2004. Geographical variation of Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) and geochemistry of local groundwater: Application of medical geology. GFF, Vol 126, part 1.

Bunnell. J, E., 2004. Medical geology: Emerging Discipline on the Ecosystem-Human Health Interface. EcoHealth 1. 15-18.

Shao, S., X., Zheng, B. S., 2004. The geochemical evidences to prove that livestock poisoning of Suchou, in Western China, reported by Marco Polo in 1295, is not Selenosis.

Selinus, O.S., 2004. Medical Geology: an emerging speciality. Terrae, Vol 1(1), A1-A8

Pronin A.P., Volfson I.F., 2004. Coal sedimentary basins of Eurasia: Endemic diseases in localities of juvenile geofluid discharge. (In Russian)

Vol’fson, I.F., 2004 Medical and biological aspects of the study and application of biologically active flints of the Russian Platform. (In Russian)

Finkelman, R.B., Centeno, J.A., Selinus, O, Pereira, J.J., 2004. Medical Geology: An Emerging Discipline. To be published in Malaysia.

J.P Grattan, G.K. Gillmore, D.D. Gilbertson, FB Pyar, C.O. Hunt, S.J. McLareng, P.S. Phillips, A. Denman. 2004. Radon and `King Solomon's Miners' : Faynan Orefield, Jordanian Desert. Science of the Total Environment. 319. 99-113.
Gavin Gillmore, David Gilbertson, John Grattan, Chris Hunt, Sue McLaren, Brian Pyatt, Richard mani Banda, Graeme Barker, Antony Denman, Paul Phillips, and Tim Reynolds. 2004. The potential risk from 222radon posed to archaeologists and earth scientists: reconnaissance study of radon concentrations, excavations, and archaeological shelters in the Great Cave of Niah, Sarawak, Malaysia. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety. 55

Future

Anticipated short courses in Medical Geology:
2005

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Romania
Rio de Janero, Brazil
Taiwan
Montevideo, Uruguay
Turkey
Bueno Aires, Argentina

Requests for short courses: Kenya, Norway, Egypt, Portugal, Nigeria, Venezuela, Kenya, Cyprus, Jordan, Israel, Ireland, Belarus and Indonesia.

Interest in Medical Geology is continuing to expand worldwide at an increasingly rapid rate and creating numerous opportunities. Our organization has reached the stage of development in which a formal structure is necessary for it to function efficiently. This structure should enable us to better respond to the opportunities, to rapidly pass information to those interested in Medical Geology issues, and to make critical decisions that will benefit the discipline. A new association will be developed in 2004, International Medical Geology Association, IMGA. Continuing support from IUGS is needed during the phase of establishment of the association and the first period of activities.

The Directors of the association will be

Olle Selinus (Geochemist, Sweden)
Bob Finkelman (Geologist USA)
Jose Centeno (Pathologist, USA)

In the new future organisation (association) we have appointed six Councilors to represent the broad geographic distribution of Medical Geology and the wide range of disciplines that are embraced by this topic. The Councilors are:
Bernardino Ribeiro de Figueiredo (Geologist, Brazil)
Fiona Fordyce (geochemist, UK)
Zheng Baoshan (geochemist- China).
Calin Tatu (Medical researcher, Romania)
Nomathemba Ndiweni (Veterinary Biochemistry, Zimbabwe)
Philip Weinstein (Epidemiologist, Australia)

These councilors will be active in medical geology within their disciplines, networks and geographical regions.

Medical Geology will also be involved in International Year of Planet Earth as one of 8 themes. A brochure is produced.

A first Center for Medical Geology will now be built in China. The second one is under discussion in South Africa.

Medical Geology is involved in the 4 GeoUnions Initiative as one theme.

Dr. Olle Selinus
Geological Survey of Sweden
Post Box 670
Uppsala, 751 28, SWEDEN
Phone +46 18 179000
Fax +46 18 179210
Olle.selinus@sgu.se (office)
Olle.selinus@home.se (home)

Dr. Jose Centeno
The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
Dpt of Environmental and Toxicologic Pathology
Washington DC, 20306-6000 USA
Phone: + 202 782-2839 (office)
+ 202 782-2832 (Lab)
Fax: +202 782-9215
centeno@afip.osd.mil

Dr.Robert Finkelman
United States Geological Survey
Mailstop 956
Reston, VA20192, USA
Phone +1 703 648 6412
Fax +1 703 648 6419
Rbf@usgs.gov

SPONSORS OF MEDICAL GEOLOGY APPENDIX 1

Geological Survey of Sweden
United States Geological Survey, USGS
US Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, AFIP
National Natural Research Council of Sweden
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
Centre for Metal Biology of Sweden
Geological Survey of Norway
British Geological Survey
UNESCO
UNEP
International Union of Geological Sciences, IUGS
International Geological Cooperation Program, IGCP#454, Medical Geology
International Council of Science, ICSU
International Association of Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry, IAGC
American Registry of Pathology
Western Australia University
Jackson State University, Mississipi
School of Mines, University of Zambia
University of Santiago
Ministerio de Minera, Chile
US Environmental Protection Agency
Centro CoHemis y la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto Universitaria de Mayaguez
Saint Petersburg State University, Russia
National Natural Science Foundation, China
The State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Academia Sinica, China
The Key Laboratory of Coal Resources, Ministry of Education, China
Japan Branch of COGEOENVIRONMENT-IUGS
The Society of Geo-Pollution (SGP), Japan
Committee of Environmental Geology, Geological Society of Japan
Center for Water Environment Studies, Ibaraki University (CWES), Japan
National Committee for Geoscience, Science Council of Japan
Geological Survey of Lithuania
Geological Survey of Brazil (CPRM)
Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Brazilian Ministry of Health
Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil
PETROBRAS, Brazil
FAPESP, Brazil
Institute for Environment and Development (LESTARI), Malaysia
Institute for Medical Research Malaysia (IMR)
Department of Minerals and Geoscience Malaysia (JMG)
University of Canberra, Australia
CRC for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME), Australia
Geoscience Australia (GA)
Institute of Geology and Geography, Lithuania (GGI)
Vilnius University (VU)