International Medical Geology Association e-news (February 2016) Edited by. Prof. Maria Aurora Armienta IMGA Co-Chair

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1 International Medical Geology Association e-news (February 2016) Edited by. Prof. Maria Aurora Armienta IMGA Co-Chair Message from the Chair Dear Friends & Colleagues from IMGA : I would like to personally welcome you to this e-news first edition 2016 hoping that you have enjoyed season s holidays with a great start to the New Year. It s an exciting time for IMGA, as we continue to grow offering to our members an excellent networking framework to develop Medical Geology activities worldwide. On 2016, we remain motivated and highly responsible to continue chairing our association. We are open to new ideas from all membership and new members are welcome as well.. Our Association is facing a time of many changes and we will continue to work to ensure that IMGA remains at the forefront wishing that all members feel great pride to belong to this association. The Medical Geology world is an exciting area of research, education and advisory services in which to work and to encourage new generations. Our Association has always aimed to create 1

2 bridges between international young and senior Geoscientists and Bioscientists, promoting development of interdisciplinary scientific studies towards getting solutions for environmental health impacts improving human and animal health. Enjoy this new edition of IMGA e-news. We are glad to have you all on board! Prof. Nelly Mañay PhD IMGA Chairperson Medical Geology in the News: Article in NSF Scientists discover how blue and green clays kill bacteria This interesting information on Medical Geology was shared by IMGA Councillor Ester Sztein: ev=click You will enjoy reading it!! Get ready for MedGeo 17 in Moscow! The local organizing committee of 7th IMGA Symposium MedGeo'17 has already started working to make these an unforgettable event. IMGA Councillor Prof Iossif Volfson informed us that Ilya Gudovich and Natalia Usova from TRIALOGUE Company - professional congress and event organizer have joined the local organizing committee. On the 20th of January, 2016 the first meeting of members of the 7th IMGA Symposium MedGeo'17 coordinating body took place. 2

3 35 th International Geological Congress The 35th International Geological Congress (IGC) will take place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from 27 August to 4 September 2016 in South Africa. The deadline to submit an abstract for the 35th International Geological Congress (IGC) has extended to February 29 We invite you to submit an abstract to the Medical Geology Symposium organized by IMGA South African Chapter Leader Hassina Mouri, and Senior Advisors Robert Finkelman, and Olle Selinus. Information onf the Symposium on Medical Geology. Medical geology has only relatively recently become a recognised discipline. The publication of a number of books on the subject and the formation of several international bodies, have contributed to this development. Geoscientists, public health/biomedical researchers, chemists, geographers and veterinarians now routinely focus attention on the health issues related to natural materials and natural processes. The focus of this session is on the progress made in understanding and mitigating the health problems caused by trace elements, minerals, naturally occurring organics, radionuclides and gases. (From the 35th IGC website) We have also received an invitation to participate in other Symposia that want to share with you: Dear Colleagues: IAPG - International Association for Promoting Geoethics ( promotes 2 symposia: Geoethics: general aspects and case-studies (Theme: Global Geoscience Professionalism and Geoethics) Convenership: Giuseppe Di Capua, Peter Bobrowsky, Martin Bohle, John Geissman, Silvia Peppoloni The conveners invite abstracts on both practical and theoretical aspects of Geoethics, including case studies. The aim of the session is to develop ethical and social perspectives on the challenges arising from human interaction with natural systems, to complement technical approaches and solutions, and to help to define an ethical framework for geoscientists' activities. Full description of this symposium at: STUDIES?theme=Global%20Geoscience%20Professionalism%20and%20Geoethics&themeId=13 Geoethical perspectives on meeting the resource needs of future generations (Theme: Resourcing Future Generations) This session is a joint initiative IAPG - International Association for Promoting Geoethics, GSL - Geological Society of London, EFG - European Federation of Geologists and EGS - EuroGeoSurveys. Convenership: Silvia Peppoloni, Nic Bilham, Vitor Correia, Luca Demicheli The conveners invite papers addressing how geoethical perspectives can be brought to bear on the challenges of sustainably meeting future demand for georesources, including energy, 3

4 groundwater and numerous mineral commodities. Full description of this symposium at: In case you want to submit an abstract in these symposia, please read carefully how to do at: Download the abstract format at: We hope you join us in Cape Town and in case you have questions about these 2 symposia, please don't hesitate to contact the IAPG staff sending an to: iapgeoethics@aol.com If possible, please, kindly, share this message among your colleagues! Thank you. See you in South Africa! Best regards, Giuseppe Di Capua And also: Good News for USA Members! The GSA Foundation, the American Geosciences Institute (AGI), and the U.S. National Committee for Geological Sciences have organized a Travel Grant Program for the 2016 International Geological Congress in Cape Town, South Africa, from August 27 to September 4, Applications are now being accepted for this travel grant program. We encourage students and early career scientists within seven years of receiving their Ph.D. to submit their application by March 1, The travel grants will provide up to $3,500 for students and young scientists to attend the 2016 Congress. For more information, please visit or see the flyer attached. Ester Sztein, PhD Assistant Director Board on International Scientific Organizations The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine ISEH 2016, ISEG 2016 & Geoinformatics 2016 Conference Dear Colleague, You are welcome to submit an abstract to ISEH 2016, ISEG 2016 & Geoinformatics 2016 conference, to be held at National University of Ireland (NUI), Galway, Ireland, during August 14-20, The joint international conference of ISEH 2016 (The 3rd International Symposium on Environment 4

5 and Health), ISEG 2016 (The 10th International Symposium on Environmental Geochemistry) 2016 and Geoinformatics 2016 (The 24th International Conference on Geoinformatics) provides 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. Ø ISEH is an internationally leading conference series in Environment and Health held once every two years. Ø ISEG is an internationally leading symposium on environmental geochemistry held once every three years. Ø Geoinformatics is the annual conference of the International Association of Chinese Professionals in Geographic Information Sciences (CPGIS). The conference venue is the campus of NUI, Galway, within walking distance of Galway s city centre. Galway is a popular tourist destination, and ranked No. 1 friendliest city in the world in a recent survey. Ireland is ranked No. 1 in the good country list, and Ireland is named as a best travel destination.the joint international conference is organized by NUI Galway (Ryan Institute GIS Centre and School of Geography and Archaeology) and CPGIS. IMGA is one of the co-organisers jointly with the Society for Environmental Geochemistry and Health (SEGH), International Medical Geology Association (IMGA), The Geographical Society of China (GSC), Environmental Sciences Association of Ireland (ISAI), Geographical Society of Ireland (GSI), Ireland Chinese Association of Environment, Resources & Energy (ICAERE), National Centre for Geocomputation (NCG), and other Academic Institutons wourldwide. ISEH 2016 & ISEG 2016 Supporting journals Applied Geochemistry Environmental Geochemistry and Health Environmental Pollution International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Visit the conference website and submit your abstracts before March 6! Chapter News We are pleased to introduce Alejandro Villalobos-Aragón who has kindly taken this important responsibility for IMGA. We want also to give our deepest gratitude to Fiona Fordyce who developed a great job in this role since the foundation of IMGA working so hard to increase and strengthen the Chapters. Congratulations and a warm welcome to the Spanish and Nigeria Local Chapters that were approved by the IMGA Executive Committee at the October 2015 board. IMGA Local Chapter Leaders please send reports and requests to Alejandro Villalobos-Aragon, avillalobos@uach.mx 5

6 Dues 2016 Dear IMGA Member, Happy new year of We would like to remind you that is time to renew your IMGA membership, if you have not done it yet. This only will take you a few minutes! The deadline will be end of April. Our Association always aims to create bridges between international Geoscientists and Bioscientists, and promotes development of interdisciplinary scientific studies towards getting solutions for environmental health impacts improving human and animal health. For this reasons, active membership is highly important for strengthen these relationships worldwide. As member of the International Medical Geology Association ( IMGA) you will be entitle to receive the following benefits: Access to member-restricted information on IMGA website on meetings, job and research opportunities, papers, and several other relevant documents. IMGA publications including IMGA Newsletter and IMGA E-news. In IMGA Newsletter you can find papers, articles, book reviews, announcements of conferences & workshops, chapters reports and upcoming meetings. In IMGA e-news you will have interesting short pieces of news and very recent information for Medical Geology community. Networking and free IMGA webinars attendance. The IMGA webinar aims the interchange and the update of scientific knowledge inside Medical Geology community. Reduced fees to attend conferences and scientific meetings organized or sponsored by IMGA.. Webinars Voting privileges for the direction of the Association. Eligibility to assume leadership positions in advisory committees towards accomplishment of the association objectives. Eligibility to hold a leadership position in your country IMGA Chapter or to establish one if it is not available. If you join a local IMGA chapter, a certain amount of the dues can be used by the chapters for local activities promoting Medical Geology. Eligibility for many of the IMGA s distinguished and travel awards. Additional benefits, such as scholarships and travel grants for students attending Medical Geology meetings can be achieved by IMGA membership. Dues can be paid on IMGA s website ( ). You can use credit card (recommended) or direct transfer to the bank account. If anyone wants to pay by check the only option is to use the US bank account. This is the payment procedure: -Go to -Press Pay your Dues in the left column -Information and Alternatives with appear on screen -Make sure to include your name when paying. If you come across any glitches, non-functioning links, typos, have any questions about the website, or have content additions please direct these to our secretary at secretary@medicalgeology.org. (cc. cpatinha@ua.pt) 6

7 We are improving our membership database so we appreciate if you could include and write your and your other colleagues names to confirm your payment easily. We ask you to continue your involvement with IMGA by renewing your membership, encouraging non-member colleagues to join IMGA, and becoming more active in IMGA by serving on council, committees and networking. We thank you for your active participation in IMGA that ensures its future success. You are also welcome to information and other subjects you can have for posting on the website. Kind regards, Carla Patinha IMGA Secretary Webinars Webinars are a very important activity of IMGA aimed to interchange and update scientific knowledge on Medical Geology. To date we have had three excellent presentations given by our colleagues Dr José Centeno, Dr Mark Cave and Dr. Robert Finkelman and Dr Olle Selinus. In these webinars we had attendants from all over the world. For 2016, we are pleased to announce the participation of Birgitte Hansen from UK, Chisalo Tembo from Zambia, O.P. Varma from India and Ana Sousa from Portugal who have kindly offered to be our next speakers and will present very interesting and relevant themes. Thank you very much for your involvement! To program more frequent webinars in 2016 we are inviting you to volunteer for a webinar sharing your achievements, and thoughts on Medical Geology. Your involvement in the webinar series would be a relevant contribution to IMGA and to the development of Medical Geology! 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. 7

8 International Medical Geology Association Executive Committee of IMGA Chair Prof Nelly Manay Director, Specialised Centre for Chemical Toxicology University of the Republic Montivideo, Uruguay Vice-Chair for Geosciences Prof Maria Aurora Armienta Geophysics Institute Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Mexico City, Mexico Vice-chair for Medical Sciences Dr Diego Fridman Director, Clinical Research Department Fundación Centro de Estudios Infectológicos Buenos Aires, Argentina 8

9 COUNCILLORS: Prof Iossif Volfson Medical Geology Division RosGeo Moscow, Russia Prof. Héctor Rubio College of Animal Production and Ecology Autonomous University of Chihuahua Chihuahua, México 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 Dr. Darren Beriro Environmental Geochemist British Geological Survey Nottingham, UK Prof. Laura Börgel Toxicology and Risk Assessment Universidad de Chile Santiago de Chile, Chile Dr. Cassio Roberto da Silva Medical Geology and Environ. Geochemistry Geological Survey of Brazil Rio de Janeiro, Brazil General Secretary Dr Carla Patinha Investigadora do GEOBIOTEC - GeoBioSciences, GeoTechnologies and GeoEngineering University of Aveiro Aveiro, Portugal cpatinha@ua.pt Webmaster Dr. R. Scott Cherba Geologist Arizona, USA imga@cherba.com Editor-In-Chief Dr Mark Cave Geochemistry and Applied Statistics British Geological Survey Nottingham, UK mrca@bgs.ac.uk Senior Advisors: Dr. José Centeno Dr.Robert Finkelman Dr. Olle Selinus Dr. Fiona M. Fordyce tonycent@comcast.net bobf@utdallas.edu ole.selinus@gmail.com fmf@bgs.ac.uk 9

10 e-news If you wish to share information with all IMGA through this e-news, please send contributions to: Maria Aurora Armienta 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. mrca@bgs.ac.uk We rely on your input and welcome you to share your information, ideas, short papers etc to all other members. 10