Linking Health To Geology

In staking the ground for any new field of science, its distinct character needs to be established. In our opinion, the already large literature on geology and health, including the chapters in this volume, provide two clear arguments for distinctiveness. First, medical geology extends the primary concern of geologists with the interactions between rocks, soils, water, and air to the effects of these interactions on the health of humans and other living organisms. Though one focus of medical geology is the search for the origins of disease in the natural geological background, there is also interest in the obvious benefits that the major, minor, and trace elements and the essential molecules found in soils, surface, and groundwater, and in the air we breathe, bring to health and well-being. Second, this new field is truly cross-disciplinary; it requires the melding of two distinct research efforts, the one focused on geology, with all its subdisciplines, and the other on living forms. Different viewpoints can be myopic, and to increase understanding of the health implications of the natural background requires the involvement not only of a wide range of earth scientists, but also of researchers and practitioners in medicine, dentistry, veterinary science, biology, botany, agriculture, and ecology, among others. From the viewpoint of the life scientists, medical geology could be regarded as a subdivision of “environmental medicine” (Möller 2000). This increasingly important aspect of medicine includes consideration of airborne pathways of disease, ozone depletion, algal blooms, the organohalogens, and mycotoxins found as part of the ‘ecology’ of the built environment (buildings, factories). In general, the purview is any factor in the natural or human environment that affects health. The term “geomedicine” has been used extensively, especially by the late J. Lag (1990). However, unlike the well-established fields of geophysics and geochemistry, in which physics and chemistry are applied to geology, the new field is clearly not about the relevance of medical principles to geology. Rather, it is concerned with the application of geological knowledge and techniques to a more integrated approach to public health.