ES 420 Medical Geology

Focus on the emerging specialty discipline of medical geology, the study of the effect of geological phenomena on animal and human health. The public health effects of Earth materials and geological processes are well established. Course topics include: introduction to medical geology as a profession, health effects of Earth materials, medical impacts of water quality, biogeochemical interactions and nutrient anomalies, anthropogenic degradation of geological environments, application of geochemistry to environmental health issues, geospatial analysis as a tool in epidemiology, health hazards associated with volcanic eruptions, global dust flux and respiratory problems, impacts of radon-arsenic-selenium-mercury-iodine on physiological function, carcinogenic associations with coal and fibrous minerals, geological effects on animal health, and geophagy (human ingestion of soil materials as a dietary supplement).
Credits: 4
Prerequisite: Consent of instructor or one of the following: ES 104 , ES 105 , ES 106 , ES 201 , ES 202 , or ES 203
Integrating Knowledge Science, Technology, and Society

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