1. What is "Medical Geology"
The care and treatment of pet rocks! Actually, it refers to the multi-disciplinary
investigation of how natural or anthropogenic processes involving the
Earth's crust (lithosphere) influence animal and plant (biosphere)
health. While the term Medical Geology usually refers to humans, other
broader terms include Geomedicine, Environmental Medicine, Ecosystem
Health, Biogeochemistry and Physical Epidemiology.
2. What topics are dominant in Medical Geology?
With global reporting of severe droughts and famines, particularly in Africa,
the 1980's was the age of "macronutrients" in International Health and
Development. While protein-energy malnutrition is still on the radar in 2000,
the focus has shifted somewhat to toxicity or deficiency of the "micronutrients".
Some of the really "hot" elements at the moment are Arsenic, Fluoride, Cadmium,
Barium and, of course, Chromium and Chlorinated Solvents, thanks to the movies
Erin Brockovich and A Civil Action.
3.What is your particular area of study in Medical Geology?
I am also known as the "Fluoride Queen of Southwestern Ontario (Canada)".
My grad project involves mapping the spatial distribution of high-F (i.e. over the
Ontario Drinking Water Objective of 1.5 mg/l) groundwaters in Ontario,
proposing a likely "source", and determining if there is a significant impact on
the health of people who consume high-F groundwater as their primary
source of drinking water. The stratigraphic equivalents of the "problem"
bedrock formations also extend into the more densely populated United States.
4.What is one/some of the unique perspective/s that Medical Geology could
bring to a situation that separate disciplines might not?
In a case like mine, the public health officials recognized that F-related
disease and well water F concentrations were not evenly distributed
across the region, but they had no idea why. Given the depositional
environment of the various bedrock subcrops, the geoscientists knew
that it was likely that some units could be high in relatively soluble F
but they were not aware of the toxicity problems. Now that F is truly
"ubiquitous" in our industrialized society, the enviromnental chemists
are having a hard time "tracing" an element that is very abundant in
the Earth's crust and only has one stable isotope. And because of the
very strange "politics" of F, the provincial drinking water regulations
have an F-sized hole in them. This problem required a comprehensive
understanding of lithosphere-biosphere interactions from a primarily
medical perspective. One of my favourite "party tricks" is guessing
where people grew up based on the degree of fluorosis (F toxicity) they
experience (ex. mottled teeth, thryroid disorders, osteoarthritis).
5. Is this a relatively new field or an older discipline?
The name is new but these kind of problems have been around since
Lucy. Not Lucille Ball, the older, African one. Because the Hydrologic
Cycle plays such an important part of life on this planet, there has been
an interesting co-evolution of the disciplines of Medical Geology with
Contaminant Hydrogeology.
6. What types on career opportunities awaits a person with a degree in
Medical Geology?
At the moment, there is no "degree" in Medical Geology that I am aware of,
although I noticed that the Geological Society of America has recently put
out a call for support of the creation of a Geomedicine subdiscipline. Why
not e-mail them at geomedicine@geosociety.org and tell them what a great
idea it is and perhaps the academic institutions will follow suit? Also, I
know that the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of
Western Ontario (Canada) offers an elective course in Ecosystem Health
where these types of problems are addressed. Perhaps they should make
some instruction in Medical Geology mandatory? For myself, I have an
undergrad degree in Human Biology (i.e. pre-med) and am working on an
M.Sc. in Hydrogeology. Having said all that, the sky is really the limit in terms
of career opportunities. Certainly, there are government and environmental
consulting jobs out there, and given the current climate of "corporate
responsibility", industry will soon be looking to have people on "their side" to
do battle with the class-action suit lawyers and government regulators.
Personally, I am aiming to work for a non-government organization (NGO) or
the United Nations.
7. What would your ideal career entail?
Tripping around the countryside in far-away places, checking the water
quality in orphanages and refugee camps and coming up with
technologically-appropriate solutions. There are literally millions of wells out
there that have never been tested and are making people sick. Often, the
technology is available to fix the problem, but traditionally, aid agencies
raise a bunch of money to sink a well (sometimes in places they should not)
and then move on to the next site. While drilled wells are generally less
susceptible to microbiological contamination, the water is often "naturally"
contaminated with dissolved minerals like Arsenic or Fluoride.
8.
In what ways do you think the field of Medical Geology could be
promoted?
I believe that some type of Geomedicine instruction should be mandatory
in medical, dental and public health professional schools. The problem right
now is that the front-line workers are not recognizing the geologically-based
health problems they are encountering and there is little value placed on
collaboration with earth scientists. From the other end of the equation, Earth
Science departments are starting to offer courses like Geology and Health
(starting September 2005 at the University of Waterloo). Lastly, some form
of professional licensure could be offered for "certifiable" Medical Geologists.
As things stand, Medical Geology practitioners are falling through the cracks
of inter-disciplinary study because it takes a long time to be licensed as both a
medical doctor (MD) and a professional geologist (PG).
9.
How did you end up studying Medical Geology?
I was "testing my resolve" to become a medical doctor by working as a
physician's assistant on a mission station in the middle of the bush in Zambia.
We went through a season in which we seemed to be treating alot of
"mystery myocarditis" cases, a heart disease of unknown cause, in children
and women of childbearing age. No one could figure it out, but when I went
home I took a Soil Science course because my boyfriend (now husband)
was an agronomist and I wanted to be able to converse with him intelligently
about his work. It occured to me while researching a thesis paper topic that
the African Mystery Myocarditis looked an awful lot like the effects of an
environmental Selenium deficiency that had been well-documented in China,
called Keshan's disease. So I reconstructed the environmental conditions
in Zambia from various sources, reviewed the hospital records, compared it
all to the Chinese situation and proposed a technologically-appropriate way
to amend the soils to increase Se availability. I got an A+ on the paper and
applied for an M.Sc. in Earth Science instead of Medical School
10. What types of funding are there for this unique field?
Both none and all. The beauty/challenge of Medical Geology is that you can
make a funding case for nearly any discipline. For example, I currently have
support through the Centre for Research in Earth and Space Technology
(CRESTech), the Geological Society of America (GSA) and the Social
Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada. Applying
for funding definitely hones your "spin doctoring" skills!
11. Is there a network for people studying these topics?
There definitely is for Fluoride. The International Society for Fluoride
Research (ISFR) publishes a quarterly journal, Fluoride, and holds
international conferences. However, the membership consist mostly of
purely biological scientist (ex. MDs, dentists, toxicologists, physiologists)
and I am one of the few earth scientists, but they tolerate me well (smile).
Almost any hydrogeological meeting you go to these days has sections on
Natural Contamination and the 8th International Conference on the
Biogeochemistry of Trace Elements is to be held April 3-5 2005 in Adelaide
Australia and is always a great place to network.
12. Where do you see this field of science in the future?
Right where I like to be - in the middle of the action! Medical geologists
have to be truly "multi-lingual" and can serve as the "hub" in the centre of the
wheel in a diverse team of experts dealing (ex. geologists, MDs, chemists,
toxicologists, even military and government) with the many complex health
problems we're facing today.
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