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International Medical Geology Association e-news
2-2016 (October 2016) Edited by Aurora Armienta
Message from the Chair
Dear Friends & Colleagues from IMGA:
Welcome to this 2016 2nd edition of IMGA e-News
The history of the International Medical Geology Association is very recent (founded in 2006) and
has been built on the initiative and the achievements of its founding members: Olle Selinus, Robert
Finkelman and Jose Centeno. When we assumed the executive committee position it was
entrusted to us - among other tasks - to change IMGA headquarters originally registered in
Sweden to other country, for the first time. This change involved many steps and exchange of
ideas among chairs, councilors, general secretary, treasurer, senior advisors and other IMGA
members. Finally we are very glad to officially communicate that our new headquarters is now
Portugal, specifically, the city of Aveiro, which is the residence of most of the Portuguese IMGA
members and chapter leaders.
Therefore, we take this opportunity to announce that the International Medical Geology
Association IMGA will be from now on, regulated by Portuguese rules and requirements . This
means the consolidation of a new institutional framework of our Association that will give more
support to the future development of new generations investigating and working on Medical
Geology.
I want to express special thanks to our colleagues in Portugal for their great dedication and
responsibility to carry out this transition taking charge of all the logistics in their country. In
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particular, a huge thanks to our current secretary, Carla Patinha who together with Dr. Eduardo
Ferreira and Nuno Moraes have been able to gather all the necessary requirements to complete
the registration in Portugal.
You will find in this e-news, a full report of the recent event sponsored by IMGA (ISEH & ISEG
2016) and from our extraordinary IMGA meeting by that time. It is also informed the progress on
the organization of our next conference MEDGEO 17 in Russia and the Webinar conducted
recently, as well as the succesful First International Symposium on Medical Geology, hold in
Salamanca (Spain).
Finally, we must start with a new election period to designate the new IMGA authorities to start
their positions on MEDGEO 2017 in Russia. To achieve this aim on time, we will soon be calling
for the nomination of new candidates that will take part of the new IMGA governance after the
election process.
Being faithful to our commitment to fulfill the responsibility of chairing IMGA with great enthusiasm
and with all the great support of you within this IMGA family, I hope you enjoy this e-news edited
by our co-chair, Aurora Armienta,
Prof. Nelly Mañay PhD
IMGA Chairperson
IMGA important report presented in Galway, Ireland By Carla patinha & Nelly Mañay
An extraordinary meeting of IMGA was held on 17th august, during the ISEH 2016, ISEG 2016
& Geoinformatics 2016 Conference, where an updated and recent performance report of IMGA
was presented to the attending members.
After the welcome address by IMGA chair, Nelly Mañay, Secretary Carla Patiña presented a
summary of the full reports submitted to the EC, from Treasurer , Webmaster, Membership
and Chapter leaders, upcoming conferences, and other activities where IMGA was involved.
She explained the full process of IMGA Registration in Portugal and presented the certificate.
MEDGEO2017 in Russia news were then presented by Natalia Baranovskaya and
our editor in Chief, Mark Cave reported about IMGA Newsletter and e-News publications.
Following these presentations, several remarks and future actions were presented by IMGA
founders, Jose Centeno and Bob Finkelman. Many particular subjects from participants were
discussed as well (the power points slides and all reports will be uploaded in the website).
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In the closing ceremony, IMGA awarded the best presentations in Medical Geology sessions,
to the winners Emmanuel Arhim (Ghana) and Jorg Schullehner (Denmark) who were invited
as future lecturers for the IMGA webinars to share their research work.
Delegates at IMGA meeting and awards
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First International Symposium on Medical Geology, Salamanca (Spain). A Great Success!
First International Symposium on Medical Geology, Salamanca (Spain)
On September 19, 2016 the first International Symposium on Medical Geology in Spain was held
in Salamanca (Spain), organized by the Local IMGA Chapter of Spain. This seminar was attended
by more than 70 participants from a wide variety of scientific areas, as well as local authorities and
the local media. The first invited speaker was Dr Laura Börgel from Chile, that talked about the
importance in risk assessment of studying the toxicological risk related with heavy metals,
particularly the case of arsenic, on health-environmental decisions. This presentation was followed
by the presentation of Dr Rosa Meijide from the University of A Coruña, dedicated to the health
benefits of mineral waters and peloids in human health, entitled “The medical use of mineral
waters and Spa products”. A short description about IMGA history and the activities developed
during the last 10 years of the existence of this Association was presented by IMGA secretary, Dr
Carla Patinha. Dr Eduardo Ferreira da Silva (Chair of the Portuguese IMGA Chapter on Medical
Geology) presented a retrospective overview of research studies that have been developed by the
members of this IMGA Chapter. Dr Elena Giménez-Forcada, the Chair of the recently established
Spain Chapter on Medical Geology, discussed the development and goals of the Chapter with a
particular aim of establishing medical geology as an emerging discipline in Spain. The second part
of this seminar was dedicated to the presentation of several studies that have been conducted by
members of Spain chapter: Dr Eduardo de Miguel (Polytechnic University of Madrid) presented the
evaluation of trace elements exposure in the pediatric population at urban environments: the case
of Madrid city; and Dr Juan Antonio Luque (Geological Survey of Spain) talked about geostatistical
application to geo-environmental studies. The main results of HidroGeoTox project (funded by
Geological Survey of Spain, IGME) were also presented. The aim of this project is to understand
the factors controlling the distribution of arsenic and other toxic elements in the south area of
Douro basin. These results were discussed by Dr Elena Giménez-Forcada (IGME), Dr María del
Carmen Rey (IGME), Dr Susana Timón (IGME), Dr Manuel García (National Distance Education
University) and Dr Agustina Fernández (University of Salamanca).
Once more became evident the increasing interest of population on Medical Geology issues. In
addition, a topic of high relevance and discussion was the need to include different areas of
expertise (including epidemiologist, toxicologist, biomedical/public health, geoscientists, etc.) in
Medical Geology studies, the projects dedicated to Medical Geology issues as an interdisciplinary
discipline, and the need to create networks in order to correctly understand the relationships
between the environment and health.
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The World Health Organization has a very clear health goal to achieve in 2030: “By 2030,
substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water
and soil pollution and contamination.” (Target 3.9).
Congratulation Local Spain Chapter for this initiative.
22nd September 2016
Carla Patinha
IMGA Secretary
MedGeo’17 is Approaching!
Welcome to Moscow
The 7th IMGA Symposium MedGeo’2017. August 28 –September 01, 2017, Moscow, Russia. Abstracts are currently being accepted for the 7th IMGA
Symposium MedGeo2017 (http://www.medgeo2017.org) to
be held August 28 –September 01, 2017 in Moscow,
Russia. Sessions of particular interest include ‘Medical
geology - An emergent discipline, “Climate change and
human health”’, "Water and health", "Radiation and human
health", “"Environmental and Chemical Pathology of Dust",
“Healing geological materials. Modern and historical aspects
of its use”, “Occupational health issues in geological and
adjusted branches of industries”, “Medical Geology of the
urban areas” and etc. The deadline for abstract submission
is December 16, 2016.
Every two years participants gather for MedGeo Conferences, where they update the outstanding
Scientific Program on the latest global perspectives on medical geology. MedGeo conference
brings together geologists, geochemists, mineralogists, hydrologists, geophysicists, geographers,
physicians, chemists, biologists, microbiologists, toxicologists, decision makers and others who
study the effects of geological processes, objects, phenomena, materials (minerals, ores, volcano
emissions, atmospheric dust, water and elements, falling into their composition and etc.) and other
natural processes as well as terms under which such effects become possible.
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The highly topical program of the 7th IMGA Symposium MedGeo’2017 will include plenary lectures,
keynote lectures, courses and workshops as well as field trips, which will give the participants the
better understanding of the main issues on medical geology.
There are more than 80 people who have already been submitted for the Moscow’s Symposium
MedGeo’2017. They are coming from Armenia, Australia, China, Ethiopia, India, Iraq, Iran,
Nigeria, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, the USA.
Local Organizing Committee members do their best for to promote upcoming event. They present
MedGeo’2017 in front of audience of different conferences. For instance a delegates and
participants of the VIII Congress of Russian Geologist held on October 26-28 in Moscow were
informed about MedGeo’2017 and this information was accepted with gratitude.
On behalf of Local Organizing Committee I would like to assure medical geology community that
we expect many more participants at the conference and hope that together with esteemed
members of International Advisory Panel in collaboration with the leaders of IMGA Regional
Chapters we will be able to organize representative biennial scientific event which will become a
worldwide conference on the exchange of information in the field of Medical Geology.
Iosif Volfson IMGA Councillor MedGeo’2017 Coordinator
Congratulations for the success of ISEH 2016, ISEG 2016 & Geoinformatics 2016 Conference !!!
Conference Report By Chaozheng Shang
The first joint international conference of ISEH 2016 (3rd International Symposium on Environment and
Health), ISEG 2016 (10th International Symposium on Environmental Geochemistry) and Geoinformatics
2016 (24th International Conference on Geoinformatics) on Environment, Health, GIS and Agriculture was
successfully held at National University of Ireland (NUI), Galway, Ireland during August 14 – 20, 2016.
This conference provided a historical opportunity for international experts working in several closely related
areas of environment, health, geographical information system (GIS) and agriculture, to meet and share the
latest understanding of the ever growing challenges between human and our changing environment. As a
joint conference, delegates were encouraged to attend any sessions of the conference and to extend their
academic networks.
The conference quality was recognized as at the internationally top level, and the conference administration
was recognised as professional. The reputation of the conference has been well established.
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Group photo of conference delegates
General statistics The joint conference attracted a total number of 308 participants (62 for Geoinformatics) from 34
countries/regions. There were 206 oral presentations (51 for Geoinformatics) and 78 posters, in 44 parallel
sessions. Out of which, there were 29 keynote speeches presented.
Session topics Besides the plenary and keynote sessions, the parallel session topics included: Agriculture,
Biogeochemistry, Coastal & Marine Ecosystem, Contaminated land with IBN, Drinking water, Environmental
geochemistry, Environmental governance, Environmental health, Environmental management,
Environmental Technology, Geochemical database, Geochemical mapping with EuroGeoSurveys, GIS and
quantitative methods, Health risk, Health risk of metals, Indoor exposure, Indoor particles, Medical Geology,
Mercury and other pollutants, Microbiology, Organic Chemicals, POPs, Session honouring Jiamo Fu, Soil
pollution, Urbanization impacts, Water Quality, and GIS sessions.
Conference
The conference was chaired by Chaosheng Zhang (NUI Galway) and opened by James Browne (President
of NUI Galway), followed by speeches of Xiaoyong Yue (Chinese Ambassador), Shu Tao (Honorary chair of
ISEH conference series, Peking University), Hui Lin (Founder of CPGIS, The Chinese University of Hong
Kong), and Cathal O’Donoghue (Head, Teagasc Rural Economy and Development Programme and
Nominated Dean of Arts, Social Science and Celtic Studies at NUI Galway).
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Group photo at conference opening
Delegates in conference theatre during opening ceremony
Delegates having lunch
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Social activities
Welcome reception in Aula Maxima
In the evening of Aug. 14, the welcome reception was held in Aula Maxima, inside the historical building of
the Quadrangle, NUI Galway, with traditional Irish music performance, followed by a professional
performance of Tsinghua University Symphony Orchestra in the Black Box Theatre in Galway.
Tsinghua University Symphony Orchestra
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The conference dinner was arranged in Radisson Blu Hotel in the evening of Aug. 16, with a contemporary Irish show featuring an electrifying mix of music, song and dance. Delegates were encouraged to participate in the Irish dancing.
Irish dancing during dinner
Field trips Three fieldtrips were organised for conference delegates to experience the natural beautify and culture of the West of Ireland: The Burren and Cliffs of Moher (Aug. 18), Connemara (Aug. 19) and Aran Islands (Aug. 20).
Conference fieldtrips
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International Board The ISEG International Board was established in the evening of Aug. 15, on a trip to Lough Corrib in the
ship “Corrib Princess”. The board comprises of internationally leading experts in the field of environmental
geochemistry, who are tasked to help to promote ISEG conference series.
The ISEG International Board is supported by 4 international societies:
AAG: The Association of Applied Geochemists IAGC: The International Association of GeoChemistry IMGA: International Medical Geology Association SEGH: Society for Environmental Geochemistry and Health
Members of ISEG International Board
Special issues in journals During the conference, discussions were made with the Editors-in-Chief of Applied Geochemistry,
Environmental Geochemistry and Health, and Environmental Pollution, and guest-editor of International
Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. The arrangements were made as follows and
relevant messages were sent to delegates in the end of August.
Applied Geochemistry (Invitation ONLY) Guest-editors: Dr. Clemens Reimann (Leading Guest-Editor) Geochemistry, Chairman, EuroGeoSurveys Geochemistry Expert Group Leiv Eirikssons vei 39, 7040 Trondheim [email protected] www.ngu.no Co-Guest-editors: Ron Fuge, Mark Cave, Chaosheng Zhang Queries regarding this Special Issue should be directed to the Leading Guest-Editor! DO NOT send your queries to conference chair!
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Environmental Geochemistry and Health (Invitation ONLY) Guest Editors: Prof. Jörg Rinklebe (Leading Guest-Editor) Full Professor for Soil- and Groundwater-Management Kommission Head of Water- and Waste-Management / Sanitary Environmental Engineering Institute for Soil Engineering, Water- and Waste-Management Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering University of Wuppertal, Pauluskirchstraße 7, 42285 Wuppertal, Germany E-Mail: [email protected]
http://www.boden.uni-wuppertal.de/en/home.html Co-Guest Editors: Yong Sik Ok, Mark Cave, Chaosheng Zhang Queries regarding this Special Issue should be directed to the Leading Guest-Editor! DO NOT send your queries to conference chair! Environmental Pollution (No special issue from this conference) It was decided that there will be no special issue in Environmental Pollution from this conference. Delegates are welcome to submit their full papers to Environmental Pollution in the ordinary way. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (Online submission is available) A Special Issue for International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is going forward. Please notice that this is an Open Access journal, and publication fee will be required. The detailed instructions are available here: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph/special_issues/ISEH Guest Editor: Dr. Jose A. Centeno, PhD, FRSC (Leading Guest Editor) Director, Division of Biology, Chemistry and Materials Science USFDA - Center for Devices and Radiological Health Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Building 64, Room 4028 Silver Spring, MD 20993 Email: [email protected] Queries regarding this Special Issue should be directed to the Leading Guest-Editor! DO NOT send your queries to conference chair! Student awards Following the recommendations from the Student Award Committee, three students were given the best student oral presentation awards, and three students were given the best student poster presentation awards. The Student Award Committee members were: Mark Cave, Carla Patinha, Birgitte Hansen. Winners of the best student oral presentations were (with no order):
Antoine Adde, Christopher Finnegan, Songyan Jiang. Winners of the best student poster presentations were (with no order):
Laurence Kavanagh, Bo Meng, Coren Pulleyblank. Organisers and co-organisers The joint international conference was organized by:
NUI Galway (Ryan Institute GIS Centre and School of Geography and Archaeology) and CPGIS (International Association of Chinese Professionals in Geographic Information Sciences).
There were 4 major international societies served as co-organisers: AAG: The Association of Applied Geochemists IAGC: The International Association of GeoChemistry
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IMGA: International Medical Geology Association SEGH: Society for Environmental Geochemistry and Health
And also several other co-organisers. Sponsors and exhibitors List of sponsors:
NUI Galway, Ryan Institute, Failte Ireland, EPA, XOS List of exhibitors:
Springer Nature, Easy Sensor, Olympus Announcement of future conferences of ISEH, ISEG & Geoinformatics
ISEH 2018 will be held in Shanghai (to be organized by Fudan University), China, during summer
2018 (ISEH is held once every two years).
ISEG 2019 will be held in Beijing (to be organised by Peking University), China, during summer 2019 (ISEG is held once every three years).
Geoinformatics 2017 will be held in Buffalo, the USA (to be available on https://cpgis.org) More information will be announced via email and on the conference website in Galway: www.nuigalway.ie/iseh2016
Webinars
IMGA webinar was held on September 27 with the Conference: Determination of trace elements and their concentrations in clay balls: problem of geophagia in Ghana. By Dr. Emmanuel Arhim
Emmanuel Arhin is one of the leading exploration geologists, regolith geoscientist, an exploration geochemist, medical geologist in West Africa and a senior lecturer at the University or Development Studies, Ghana. He sees health care budget can be reduced particularly in developing countries through medical geology research. His notion is that geological and human induced processes polluting the environment whose consequences reflects in numerous environmental health cases can be mitigated interdisciplinary but some support from the Developed World. He has undertaken several medical geology researches in Ghana, which today’s presentation is one of them. Harmattan Dust is a global canker and contains trace elements and pathogens full of diseases. It has no boundary but health related impacts can be reduced or prevented. This I am making a request for collaborative research to investigate the contained trace elements and pathogens with the intention to prevent many primary health issues in the savannah regions of Ghana and West Africa. Emmanuel is the Chapter Leader of the International Medical Geology Association in Ghana and also the Head of Department of Earth and Environmental Science Department of University for Development Studies, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Navrongo Campus from 2007-2010 and from 2013 to present.
This conference was also a success like the previous ones, attendants from 11 countries asked questions and interchanged ideas with Emmanuel after the presentation.
Congratulations Emmanuel!
Volunteer to dictate a webinar!. Your involvement in the webinar series would be a relevant contribution to IMGA and to the development of Medical Geology.
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International Medical Geology Association
Executive Committee of IMGA Chair
Prof Nelly Manay
Director, Specialised Centre for Chemical Toxicology
University of the Republic
Montivideo, Uruguay
Email: [email protected]
Vice-Chair for Geosciences
Prof Maria Aurora Armienta
Geophysics Institute
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Mexico City, Mexico
Email: [email protected]
Vice-chair for Medical Sciences
Dr Diego Fridman
Director, Clinical Research Department
Fundación Centro de Estudios Infectológicos
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Email: [email protected]
COUNCILLORS:
Prof Iossif Volfson Medical Geology Division RosGeo
Moscow, Russia
Email: [email protected]
Prof. Héctor Rubio
College of Animal Production and Ecology
Autonomous University of Chihuahua
Chihuahua, México
Email: [email protected]
Prof. Laura Börgel
Toxicology and Risk Assessment Universidad de Chile Santiago de Chile, Chile Email: [email protected]
Dr Ester Sztein
U.S. National Committees for the geosciences Board on International Scientific Organizations of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences Washington, D.C., USA
Email: [email protected]
Dr. Darren Beriro
Environmental Geochemist British Geological Survey Nottingham, UK
Email: [email protected] Dr. Cassio Roberto da Silva Medical Geology and Environ. Geochemistry Geological Survey of Brazil Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Email: [email protected]
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General Secretary
Dr Carla Patinha
Investigadora do GEOBIOTEC - GeoBioSciences, GeoTechnologies and GeoEngineering University of Aveiro Aveiro, Portugal Email: [email protected]
Treasurer
Dr Birgitte Hansen Department of Groundwater and Quaternary Geology Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Aarhus, Denmark Email: [email protected]
Senior Advisors:
Dr. José Centeno email: [email protected]
Dr.Robert Finkelman email: [email protected]
Dr. Olle Selinus email: [email protected]
Dr. Fiona M. Fordyce email: [email protected]
e-news If you wish to share information with all IMGA through this e-news, please send contributions to: Maria Aurora Armienta email:[email protected]
Webmaster
Dr. R. Scott Cherba Geologist Arizona, USA
Email: [email protected]
Editor-In-Chief
Dr Mark Cave
Geochemistry and Applied Statistics
British Geological Survey
Nottingham, UK
Email: [email protected]
Newsletter Articles are a very important part of IMGA Newsletter! Please send your contribution to the next newsletter All contributions should be sent to our editor: Mark Cave. British Geological Survey Nottingham, UK. Email: [email protected] We rely on your input and welcome you to share your information, ideas, short papers etc to all other members.
