COAL RESEARCH, EARLY FORAYS INTO ENVIRONMENT AND HUMAN HEALTH AT THE U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, AND MEDICAL GEOLOGY WITH ROBERT B. FINKELMAN

From the founding of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in 1879, the organization has been interested in the geology, petrology, chemistry, and origin of coal. In 1880, W.F. Hillebrand was hired as a chemist and set up a laboratory in Denver, CO where he analyzed rocks including coal. After moving to Washington, DC to join F.W. Clarke, he continued with coal analysis and in the late 1890's, he was an ACS committee member that defined the standards of proximate and ultimate coal analysis. These analyses were concerned with parameters of importance to the operation of coal-fired power plants. By the 1920's, the USGS coal research was extensive and included D.White (origin and paleobotany), R.Thiessen (petrography), and M.R. Campbell (geology and assessment). Interest in minor elements in coal and its combustion by-products began with V.M. Goldschmidt in the 1930s. After WWII, the USGS started looking at the abundance and distribution of trace elements in coal with a project lead by T. M. Stadnichenko and later by P. Zubovic. In 1965, a landmark AAAS symposium on Medical Geology had H.L. Cannon (USGS) as one of four panel members. H.T. Shacklette, A.T. Miesch, and R.R. Tidball conducted other early USGS studies on environment and human health. In the early 1970's, the purchase of a SEM/EDS allowed in-situ mineral identification of coal pellets and Bob Finkelman became an expert in this technique. Early application of this instrument involved the mineralogy of burning culm banks. A SEM/EDS study of modes of occurrence of trace elements in coal comprised Finkelman's 1980 Ph.D. dissertation. After a brief hiatus at Exxon, Bob returned to the USGS and began extensive research on coal quality both domestically and worldwide. By the late 1980's, his coal-quality research group had an eminent international reputation on the origin, distribution, and modes of occurrence of trace elements in coal. Two coal quality research opportunities lead Bob Finkelman into his exceptional career in Medical Geology, (1) collaborating with G. L. Feder and later W.H. Orem on Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN), and (2) investigating chronic arsenic poisoning in rural southwest China with Prof. Zheng Baoshan. From these early ventures, Robert B. Finkelman has become the preeminent researcher, teacher, and spokesman for Medical Geology.