The Director’s representative of the Institute for Environment and Development (LESTARI)

The Director General’s representative of the Minerals and Geoscience Department Malaysia (JMG)

Distinguished speakers

Workshop Participants

Ladies and Gentlemen

It gives me great pleasure in welcoming you to this inaugural Medical Geology Workshop, the first of its kind to be conducted in Malaysia. The LESTARI, JMG and their affiliations with the international organizations on medical geology were instrumental in formulating and conceptualizing this workshop.

Medical Geology is an emerging discipline in environmental medicine and has a significant role in re-conceptualising the beneficial and the harmful aspects of the natural world. Medical Geology is defined as the science dealing with the relationship between natural geological factors and health in man and animals, and understanding the influence of ordinary environmental factors on the geographical distribution of such health problems. Medical Geology is therefore a broad and complicated subject which requires interdisciplinary contributions from the different scientific fields if the problems are to be understood. It is a fast-growing field that not only involves geoscientists but also medical, public health, veterinary, agricultural, environmental and biological scientists. In its broadest sense, medical geology studies exposure to or deficiency of trace elements and minerals; inhalation of ambient and anthropogenic mineral dusts and volcanic emissions; transportation, modification and concentration of organic compounds; and exposure to radio nuclides, microbes and pathogens.

Ironically, Mother Nature is indeed a polluter. The planet earth is the ultimate source of all metals. All known elements are present at some level of concentration throughout the natural environment. They are present in minerals, vegetables and animals, and their beneficial and harmful effects have been present since evolution began. Volcanic eruptions are natural releases of metals to the environment , of which some elements under certain conditions are regarded as harmful, such as arsenic, cadmium, mercury, lead, radon and uranium.

Some of the international examples, pertaining to the importance of medical geology include the Keshan disease, a heart muscle disease reported in China in the 1930’s whereby findings have indicated that the disease was always located in low selenium areas which geographically form a low selenium belt and selenium used in prevention and treatment was a great success. Although selenium in small amounts is essential to animal and human health, it is toxic in large amounts.

In Australia there is an interesting example of the effects of high natural contents of metals on human health. In some areas of Australia there are holy places for the Aborigines. One of these areas, the "sickness country" in the Kakadu region is an area which causes sickness if people go there. Hence such areas are regarded as taboo by the aboriginals and should not be entered. Geochemical researchers have found out that the "sickness country" is found to coincide with a region containing localized areas of unusually high natural levels of thorium, uranium, arsenic, mercury, fluorine and radon in groundwater and drinking water. Thus the natural levels of concentration in the land and water systems had constituted to the ‘sickness’ and as an environmental hazard.

International incidents of arsenic contamination in groundwater and the consequent ill health of people have been widely reported. Examples include arsenic contaminated water in the Bengal Delta as the world’s largest arsenic poisoning with so far has left more than 600 000 people disfigured and facing early death. The arsenic contamination incident in the well-water of Taiwan (1961 – 1985) is well known with the population of the endemic area was about 100 000. Similar problems were reported from Antofagasta in Chile where almost 100 000 people were drinking water with high arsenic content for 12 years between 1959 and 1979.

With some of these examples, Medical Geology is indeed gaining its importance in the environmental and medical field. This workshop is apt and timely to share the most recent information on the relationship between toxic metal ions, trace elements and their impact on the environmental and public health issues. This workshop also would be able to provide the opportunity for forming contacts and networks between professionals working on different areas of environmental and human health.

I am sure the participants for this workshop will benefit greatly during these two days in terms of requiring knowledge on medical geology from the workshop leaders, namely Dr Centeno, Dr Finkelman, Dr Selinus and Dr Mullick with their expertise and vast experience. We extend a warm Selamat Datang and hope their stay in Malaysia would be an enjoyable and memorable one with our warm Malaysian hospitality.

Lastly I would like to thank the Organising Committee for their dedication and work in ensuring the success of this workshop.

Thank you.