Taxonomy term

health

Geologic Column: Get busy living!

Whether imprisioned literally or figuratively, one has a choice: Get busy living or get busy dying. A recent stint with temporary invalidity got the author thinking about how he has rekindled the creative fires and enthusiasm at various times throughout his life and career, and his keys to getting busy living again. 

24 Nov 2014

Valley fever's deadly history

The earliest recorded case of coccidioidomycosis was documented in Argentina in 1892, when a soldier was diagnosed with what was first thought to be an infection of coccidia — parasitic protozoans, like cryptosporidium and toxoplasma, that infect the intestines of animals, including chickens, cows, dogs and cats. The soldier lived with the disease for 11 years, during which time his doctors realized it was not caused by a protozoa but by a fungus. The name, however, stuck.
 

07 Sep 2014

Valley Fever an occupational hazard for geoscientists

Geoscientists should take precautions against contracting Valley Fever — a sometimes-fatal infection with no known cure and no vaccine that is caused by a soilborne fungus, said James A. Jacobs, a California-based consulting hydrogeologist, at the annual meeting of the American Institute of Professional Geologists last year.
 

07 Sep 2014

Natural arsenic levels in Ohio soils exceed regulatory standards

A new study in which all 842 soil samples taken in Ohio had more arsenic than recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) raises the question of what to do when natural background levels in the environment exceed limits set to protect ecosystems and human health.
 

31 Aug 2014

Arsenic levels in China may be predicted by modeling

In China, arsenic poisoning from groundwater has been a known chronic health issue since at least the 1970s. From 2001 to 2005, the Chinese Ministry of Health tested 450,000 wells, 13 percent of which exceeded World Health Organization (WHO) arsenic standards. However, numbers could be far worse, as only about 12 percent of Chinese counties were screened.

11 Sep 2013

Arsenic in wells in Vietnam suggests dig-deeper approach has issues

For years, scientists and public health officials have known that arsenic threatens the water supplies of millions of people in the heavily populated floodplains of Southeast Asia. A recent study centers on Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, but has profound implications for the people of the entire region. In Vietnam, arsenic is naturally hosted in sediments drained off the Himalayas, which wash into the Mekong.

10 Sep 2013

Gold, lead and death in Nigeria

Geology, economics and culture culminate in a perfect storm with deadly results

20 Feb 2012

Dangerous dust: Erionite - an asbestos-like mineral causing a cancer epidemic in Turkey - is found in at least 13 states

As North Dakota’s state geologist, Ed Murphy has spent a fair amount of time mapping the geology of the Killdeer Mountains in the western part of the state, hiking up and down buttes of the White River Group and the Arikaree Formation. In the 1980s, he and colleagues mapped large deposits of rocks bearing erionite — a zeolite mineral formed when volcanic ash is altered by water — that may have had some commercial use.

31 Jan 2012

When the dust settles: Investigating lingering health questions 10 years after 9/11

For the past 10 years, geoscientists have been helping to characterize the dust that blanketed lower Manhattan following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, hoping to determine if and how that dust may be causing long-term health problems.

12 Aug 2011

Still in a haze: What we don't know about black carbon

Black carbon — fine particles of soot in the atmosphere produced from the burning of fossil fuels or biomass — has been known to be a health hazard for decades, a major contributor to the thick hazes of pollution hovering over cities around the world.

14 Mar 2011

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