General meeting IMGA Wednesday 17th May 2006
Beijing, China
Olle Selinus, Bob Finkelman, Jose Centeno, Bernardino Figueiredo, Baoshan Zheng, Michele Monteil, Romulo S. Angelica, Ari Roisenberg, Baruch Spiro, Chen-Lin Chao, Yongzhang Zhou, Supniyo Das, Poh Seng Chee, Ben Williamsson, Haiao Zeng, Ron Watkins, Ron Fuge, Hyo-Taek Chon, Hanjin Luo, Bo Peng, Yushao Wu, Weiwei Li, Yegang Tang, Yoshiyki Seko, Bob Eppinger, Harvey Belkin, Geoff Plumlee, Baatar Tumenbayar, Anabela Reis, Nazmi Oruc, Gulbin Gurdal, Ziya Cetiner, K. Balakrishna, Mark Lyles, Nurdan Duzgoren-Aydin, Xinging Lee, plus a few others who did not sign the attendance sheet .
Countries represented: USA, Sweden, Trinidad Tobago, Brazil, United Kingdom, China, Malaysia, Australia, Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Portugal, Turkey, India, Hong Kong.
The chairman O. Selinus welcomed all attendees
The chairman gave a presentation on the development of the IMGA.
During 2006 many activities have been carried out. Medical geology has been included in curricula at universities, has received several prestigious rewards and has been highlighted all over the world. 10 short (?) courses have been held. Numerous presentations have been held at meetings and conferences.
A Constitution and By-laws for the IMGA have been developed, adopted by its constituency and posted on the IMGA website at http://www.medicalgeology.org. In addition, several Regional Divisions (~12 divisions representing every continent) and Working Groups have been developed with approximately 60% of the divisions are fully active and contributing to the goals and mission of IMGA.
Regional Divisions are now established. The first divisions ready are for Russia and NIS, Sub Sahara region, and South America.
In 2006, medical geology short courses were organized in Portugal (Lisbon and Aveiro), New Mexico and China. The next one will be in BanglaDesh in November 27-30, 2006.
It was also decided to publish a form of interest (or a Short Course Proposal form)on the website for those who would like a short course to be organized in their countries or regions.
It was also decided to publish a short course request form on the website for those who would like a short course presented in their country.
IMGA is publishing a special issue on medical geology in developing countries in the journal of SEGH. A second issue is in preparation .
A newsletter on a CD was mailed to all members of IMGA in June. The CD contained the newsletter, all previous newsletters, all lectures from the short course in Sweden in 2005 and selected papers. Next full newsletter on a CD will be distributed in December. This newsletter will only be mailed to those IMGA members in good standing, meaning those who have paid their membership fees (for category one and for those members in other categories with well established regional divisions).
Regular e-mail newsletters are mailed to all members. It was emphazised that the newsletter depends on contributions from all members. Therefore we urge everyone to send information on papers, courses, meetings etc or short papers to the chairman or the editor. [See Jose’s comments]
A discussion on different possibilities of publishing articles was brought up. Many papers on medical geology are published in both geoscientific and medical journals but there is a lack of any common journal that can be used. However, before this is resolved, all members will receive a list of all publications in medical geology during 2006 at the end of the year in order to be updated on all papers of interest.
Some suggestions for the future were proposed. One possibility could be to publish medical geology papers on the Biomedical Journal on line. Another suggestion was Chemical Transactions on line.
A new publication from Brazil on medical geology has arrived. The book describe the state of medical geology research in Brazil with specific examples in which the medical and geoscience communities have been involved. This book will also be translated into English.
A special issue on medical geology of AMBIO, the journal of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences will be published in the beginning of 2007. This special issue will summarized medical geology papers which were presented at the International Symposium on Medical Geology sponsored by the Academy on May 18-19, 2006 in Stockholm, Sweden (see below).
The Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences was the venue for an International Symposium on Medical Geology that was recently organized under the auspices of the Academy and it had as the primary objective the goal of sharing the latest information on medical geology from experts working in the field. The activity was able to bring together over 60 scientists from all over the world to discuss the state of medical geology and future directions.
Other selected international symposia containing sessions on Medical Geology in 2006.:
1. 9th International Symposium on Metal Ions in Biology and Medicine Lisboa Portugal, May 20-23 2006.
2. Metals in the Environment, April 2006, Lithuania
3. Annual Force Health Protection Conference, August 2006, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
4. International Congress on Chemical Safety and Toxicology, August 2006, Santiago, Chile.
5. XXVI International Congress of the International Academy of Pathology, Environmental Patholgy Symposium, September 2006, Montreal, Canada.
6. 43rd Brazilian Geological Congress, September 2006, Aracaju, Brazil.
Some attendees suggested special medical geology conferences. Another suggestion was to have alternating meetings between geoscience and medicine.
The international congress in Oslo, 33IGC, is underplanning. Between 10 and 15 suggestions for medical geology symposia have been submitted. O Selinus is a member of the organising committee and will arrange for these matters
The UN has recently proclaimed the International Year of Planet Earth. The aim of the International Year of Planet Earth is to demonstrate new and exciting ways in which Earth sciences can help future generations meet the challenges involved in ensuring a safer and more prosperous world. A major component of the Year of Planet Earth will be an initiative to raise the awareness of the role of medical geology.
After a little more than one hour the chairman thanked all for the input, their suggestions for the future and discussions.
Olle Selinus
Chairman