MEDICAL GEOLOGY: A PERSONAL STORY OF LUCK, DEDICATION, AND FRIENDSHIP (Invited Presentation)

Perhaps every new venture that succeeds relies on some combination of luck, dedication, and cooperation. In that regard the beginnings of modern Medical Geology is no different. I can trace my awakening to what would become Medical Geology back some 45 years to when Wayne Downey, Jr., a high school student who won a National Science Fair contest with a project on burning coal, was randomly assigned to me as a summer intern. Through Wayne I became aware of As, F, Se, Pb, etc. being mobilized by these fires. Two decades later Jean Weaver, a USGS colleague introduced me to Jose Centeno, then with the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Jean correctly predicted that Jose and I would ‘get along great together’. Shortly thereafter I received a call from Chen-Lin Chou of the Illinois State Geological Survey who asked if I could host Zheng Baoshan, a Chinese coal scientist, at my lab. I did not know any of the one billion people in China but that day I just happened to have on my desk an article on Se in coal by Zheng Baoshan! Baoshan encouraged me to visit China in 1996 to see the health problems caused by residential coal burning and I urged Jose Centeno to join us. We were so impressed by what we saw in Guizhou Province that Jose and I promised Baoshan that we would dedicate ourselves to this issue. We did this by creating a short course on the health impacts of trace elements and metal ions. Four years later at an IGC conference I heard Olle Selinus of the Geological Survey of Sweden talk about his efforts to create a Medical Geology activity. He immediately adopted our short course as part of the activity. Olle, Jose, and I worked tirelessly to establish the discipline through a series of short courses, lectures, articles, books as well as the creation of the International Medical Geology Association. Luck, dedication and friendship has resulted in the most satisfying accomplishment of my career. With sustained luck and friendship I will continue to dedicate myself to promoting the field of Medical Geology.