ERADICATING HEALTH RISKS FOR RAPIDLY GROWING URBAN POPULATIONS: A MEDICAL GEOLOGY PRIORITY

Urban populations are growing rapidly, especially in Asia and Africa. Today, 50%, 3.6 billion of the 7.2 billion people on Earth live in urban centers. By 2035, this figure is expected to grow to 70% of the projected 8.5 billion people or 5.9 billion, and to 6.7 billion urban dwellers of 9.6 billion people in 2050. The increases come from natural growth, rural citizens moving to urban centers, and immigrants. The thrust of much medical geology investigation now is to respond to an epidemiology alert when a disease node related to the ingestion or contact with inorganic and organic pollutants is recognized and then work to target its source and pathway(s) to citizens. The world community then receives warnings about an illness related to geological/geochemical conditions to help resolve existing medical problems and avoid future ones. Today and into the future, geologists and geochemists should set as a priority the identification of potential sources of illnesses in space that could be occupied by urban populations. This may be in or proximate to a city and should be an integral phase of land use planning. Potential sources of toxins include abandoned buried toxic chemicals or chemical and conventional munitions, underground and surface storage tanks, landfills, and active industrial/manufacturing facilities. Some sites are covered by soil and/or vegetation. Their locations may be revealed by a thorough review of historical and modern municipal records that describe industries that functioned in or around urban settings that could have generated toxic chemicals for disposal or storage. Satellite imagery can help identify potential disposal sites. These are found by analyses of soils, water, crops, air, and rocks. On the basis of geological observations and geochemical measurements, an assessment is made on whether habitation is safe or if reclamation is necessary and economically viable before habitation.