WORKSHOP IN UPPSALA
On 8-12 June 1998 a workshop for the working group was carried out in Uppsala.
The meeting discussed and planned several activities:
Briefly, the meeting involved the participation of about 12 working group members from USA, Canada, China, Sri Lanka, Belarus, Zambia, Great Britain, Norway, Poland and local scientists and a varying number of local doctors, veterinarians, and geoscientists. The meeting started with brief and very interesting presentations.
One tragedy was the death the first day of the meeting of one participant, professor Valentin Lukashev from Belarus. This was also terrible for professor Lukashevs wife who accompanied him to Sweden. Credit is due to the rest of the participants who managed to continue under such a stressful event.
Regular news letters.
A newsletter for the working group and other interested people will be produced. To start with, the newsletter will be produced twice a year with 4 pages. Editor of the newsletter will be Dave Elliott, Canada. The first letter will be published September 1, 1998. For more details see a special page of this website.
Internet home page of the group.
The home page of the group will continue to expand. This medium is a very good one in informing regularly of activities planned or ongoing. Olle Selinus will update the pages at least once a month probably every second week, depending on new material. All members are asked to provide information an links, conferences etc to the chairman.
The homepages have so far not been updated regularly due to computer problems. But these problems are now solved.
Other information material
Flyers and brochures were discussed. This will however require rather much work and we should for the moment concentrate on the book to be published. However this will be discussed at the annual meeting of COGEOENVIRONMENT in Vancouver in September 1998.
Publishing of an interdisciplinary book on Medical Geology
A book on medical geology will be published: "Introduction to Medical Geology". The audience will be junior to senior undergraduates and educated decision-makers. The main objective of the book is to emphasise the importance of geology in health and disease in humans and animals. For more details see a special page of this website.
Additional subjects
Information on the activities of the working group should be published in various journals. Olle Selinus will write a suggestion including a presentation of the results of the workshop and submit it to the homepage. Following journals will be approached: Episodes (Olle Selinus), Explorer and Journal of Environmental Geology (Clemens Reimann), Earthwise (Fiona Fordyce), Explorer; Newsletter of APG (Dave Elliott). Other journals will also be approached. Please send copies to the chairman of anything published concerning the activities of the working group.
We had four days of meetings and discussions and a one day field trip to the old town of Falun 200 kilometres from Uppsala, including a visit to the old mine (about 1000 years old). We studied remediation activities of mining waste and visited the municipality of Falun studying and discussing the work going on on metal pollution in the town. This was an interesting subject for the working group. The municipality of Falun concentrates on the biovailable metals instead of, what is normaly done, using he total contents.
We also visited the Geological Survey of Sweden one afternoon, looking mainly at geochemical activities and work going on on radon problems and the effects of Chernobyl in Sweden.
The workshop was carried out 3 kilometres from Uppsala in an old mansion (WITTULSBERG) from the 17th century. The house is beautifully situated in the countryside with gardens and wild animals. Moose and deer were seen just outside the house during the week.
