Practical Applications of Medical Geology

Book excerpt: This edited volume provides a framework for integrating methods and information drawn from geological and medical sciences and provides case studies in medical geology to illustrate the usefulness of this framework for crafting environmental and public health policies related to natural materials. The relevance of medical geology research to policy decisions is a topic rarely discussed, and this volume attempts to be a unique source for researchers and policy makers in the field of medical geology in addressing this gap in practical medical geology applications. The book's four sections establish this framework in detail using risk assessment, case studies, data analyses and specific medical geology techniques. Following an introduction to medical geology in the context of risk assessment and risk management, the second section discusses specific methods used in medical geology in the categories of geoscience, biomedicine, and data sources. The third section discusses the medical geology of natural materials, energy use, and environmental and workplace impacts. This section includes specific case studies in medical geology, and describes how the methods and data from the previous section are used in a medical geology analysis. The fourth section includes a guide to the medical geology literature and provides some examples of medical geology programs in Asia and Africa.