HOW TO BRING TO DECISION MAKERS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF IMGA CHAPTER INITIATIVES

We would like to share some information with colleagues about what the N.I.S. IMGA Chapter has done to bring awareness to decision makers and to highlight the significance of initiatives and activities in medical geology. In our opinion, social and medical questionnaires in the regions affected with unfavorable geogenic as well technological processes is one of the most effective instruments to present the close association between economics, ecology and health to decision makers. We carried out a comparative study of the results of recent environmental research performed in the regions of mining and metallurgy enterprises, as well as areas of tectonic and volcano activity. The chemical composition of hair of persons of the different age groups living permanently in industrial centers and mining areas of Russia and Armenia as well as people exposed to volcano emissions at the Azores and Chile was quantified by using High Resolution Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry. On average, men exposed to volcanic emissions in the Azores presented higher concentrations of Cd (96.9 ppb), Cu (16.2 ppm), Pb (3417.6 ppb), Rb (216.3 ppb), and Zn (242.8 ppm), but not Se (469.6 ppb) (Amaral et al., 2008). The results demonstrate that humans chronically exposed to volcanic emissions show high concentrations of essential and non-essential trace metals such as zinc, lead, cadmium, copper in scalp hair, and it is suggested that this type of exposure may be as harmful as living close to industrial facilities. The results are a scientific foundation for preliminary baseline medical and social assessment performed in some perspective mining territories of the economic development regions of Siberia and the Far East. A social and medical questionnaire survey was carried out among the population of regions of mining and volcano activity (Transbaikalia and the Kamchatka Peninsula respectively). The results show that there is an apparent underestimation of geological factors affecting human health. Practical guidelines have been compiled on the impact optimization of geological factors of technological and natural origin on human health.