Environmental geochemistry and health: an integrated future in medical and geochemical studies - the example of iodine

This set of papers resulted from both oral and poster sessions on Geochemistry and Health at the Geoscience 98 conference held in Keele University, UK, 14-18 April 1998. The aim of the sessions, and indeed this thematic set is to highlight some of rite current and developing interests within the subject, and in particular, to emphasize the need for cooperation between medical professionals and geochemists. Plant et al. set the scene for subsequent papers by providing an overview of environmental geochemistry, and through a discussion of current geochemical mapping triumphs and future possibilities. The paper on asbestos by Gibbons illustrates the breadth of studies in environmental geochemistry, and highlights the multi-disciplinary, approach required including in this ease an understanding of political and social issues. Two papers (Ragnarsdottir and Worrall ct all. ideal with pesticides-a group of environmental pollutants that are currently the focus of much concern. Indeed Nicholas Ashford, a health adviser to the United Nations, said recently. 'I think pesticides are the most serious problem we have today in the industrial countries'. Ragnarsdottir examines the environmental fate and toxicology of an important, highly relic group of pesticides (organophosphates), while Worrall et al. take an entirely different approach, discussing the use of statistical methods which use pesticide chemical properties to predict environmental fate. Finally, Smith et at. illustrate a relatively new approach to environmental geochemistry, which is made possible through the effective collaboration between geochemists and medical professionals. Such collaborations will no doubt be an important feature of the development of environmental geochemistry into the twenty-first century.