United Kingdom
Updated March 2018
Chapter Contact:
Dr. Darren Beriro, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham, UK
E-mail: darrenb@bgs.ac.uk
Chapter Website: www.medical-geology.uk
Facebook: ‘Medical Geology – UK Chapter of IMGA’
Twitter: IMGA-UK @IMGA_UK
The UK IMGA Chapter was established and approved by the IMGA Board in 2015.
March 2018
Report from Local Chapter Leader Dr Darren Beriro:
- The British Geological Survey has an ongoing research program into the development of methods for measuring the dermal bioaccessibility of polyaromatic hydrocarbons present in soils and the inhalation bioaccessibility of inorganic contaminants in soils.
- Dr Mark Cave has given the following medical geology presentations:
- March 29th 2017 Geological Society London, inaugural meeting of the Geological Society Contaminated Land Group –“A Medical Geology Perspective on the Effect of Soil on Human Health”
- Cleanup Conference Melbourne Australia September 17th 2017 –“Geochemical controls on the bioaccessible fractions of selected elements in London soils” and and “The effect of lead in soil on crime deprivation in Derby, Leicester and Nottingham”.
June 2017
No update.
December 2016
Research
The British Geological Survey will measure and model the dermal bioavailability of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in soil using passive diffusion cells and GC-MS/MS analysis. We will also conduct a literature review of the inhalation bioaccessibility of PAH in soil derived dust. The outputs of the research are expected to reduce uncertainties in human health risk assessment used as part of the remediation of former industrial brownfield land. The project is funded by National Grid Property Holdings with management input from WSP/Parsons Brinckerhoff.
Dr Mark Cave of the British Geological Survey gave a number of Medical Geology related talks:
- Keynote presentation at ISEH meeting Galway Pb in London soils and use of Machine Learning for Geochemical Mapping 15-21st August 2016
- Attended ISO meeting in Paris 24-25th Oct 2016 to provide input to the new ISO standard on Bioaccessibility measurement in soils
- EPUK seminar 19th of May 2016 at BGS” Potentially harmful element bioaccessibility – confidence in the science”.
- Bioavailability Workshop Wed 23 June 2016 – Remediate PhD Summer School , Queens University Belfast
- Annual Joint Conference of the Northern Contaminated Land Forum, 24th June -Assessing the Effects of Urban Soil Geochemistry on Human Wellbeing
- Scottish Contaminated Land Forum Conference 7th September 2016 Glasgow Assessing the Effects of Urban Soil Geochemistry on Human Wellbeing
June 2016
The UK IMGA has been promoting IMGA where possible. In particular the current Chair, Darren Beriro was invited to give an evening presentation at the Cambridgeshire Geological Club on 14th March where he spoke on the subject. Other related activities include a seminar hosted by British Geological Survey on current issues in contaminated land and also an invited presentation at national conference on Innovation in Site Investigation. Both of which included a presentation by Mark Cave on the human bioaccessibility of harmful chemical elements and organic compounds in soil.
(Photo in member section)
October 2015
We are pleased to announce that a new IMGA-UK chapter has been set up for the United Kingdom by our 13 members. We were presented our certificate at the MEDGEO conference in July 2015. The focus of the chapter is on promoting research conducted primarily by UK researchers, in particular early career researchers. During 2015-16 IMGA-UK has created a new website at www.medical-geology.uk with various posts and photos. We have also set up a Twitter account IMGA-UK @IMGA_UK which we have used for 16 Tweets so far and a Facebook page named ‘Medical Geology – UK Chapter of IMGA’. These media are to be used as a vehicle for disseminating members’ and other interesting research to a wide variety of people. It is early days, and we are looking for contributions in all areas, especially summaries of individual research profiles with links to their institutions. We would also like to link with peoples’ new and forthcoming research findings that we can promote using our social media accounts. Any ideas or suggestions for increasing the usefulness of the website and social media tools would be welcomed. We would like to make the IMGA-UK a resource that people use to navigate this interesting and diverse area of science. We are pleased to have made the progress we have so far this year and acknowledge that this is work in progress, requiring further development over the next few years by our committed members.
(Photo in member section)