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Dear Members,
It is a pleasure to bring you this latest issue of INTERFACE with news from Dr. Betsy Kagey of the Julian Chisolm Jr. award to Bobby Wixson in 2002 and the final report from the Arsenic Task Force, prepared by Willard Chappell.
We also have the first announcement for the 4th Asia-Pacific Symposium on Environmental Geochemistry, to be held in Perth, Western Australia, in January 2005, and news from Xiangdong Li for members of the Asia-Pacific section of SEGH.
At the time of writing, I am advised by John Farmer that arrangements for the 6th International Symposium on Environmental Geochemistry (ISEG 2003), being held in Edinburgh, 7-11 September 2003, are well advanced and that the programme currently includes some 200 oral and 225 poster presentations. An SEGH Executive Board Meeting and the Annual General Meeting of the Society will be held during the Symposium. These will also be attended by Ming Wong, the new Editor-in-Chief of the journal Environmental Geochemistry and Health.
Finally, the European section is not holding a conference this year (because of ISEG 2003) but the preliminary details for the next Annual European Conference, to be held at the University of Sussex, England, April 2004, and the likely venue for the 2005 Conference are announced.
Margaret Graham
(Margaret.Graham@ed.ac.uk)
University of Edinburgh
June 2003
Dr. Bobby G. Wixson
From his extensive resumé, one finds that Dr. Bobby G. Wixson is currently Dean Emeritus of the Colleges of Biological Sciences at Clemson University in South Carolina. He was Dean of the College of Sciences at Clemson and also Professor of Biological Sciences for his home department from 1987 until 1995. Prior to his work at Clemson, he was Professor of Environmental Health in the Civil Engineering Department and Dean of International Programs at the University of Missouri-Rolla. Included in his academic work, Bobby has chaired or been an active member of numerous National Committees (24 are listed on his resumé). He has also been involved in many State Committees regarding water pollution, mining and hazardous waste legislation. Overall, although his background is in environmental engineering, his resumé does not do him justice…at least not for the members of the Society for Environmental Geochemistry and Health.
In 2002, Bobby G. Wixson was awarded the Society’s Julian Chisolm Jr. Award for Outstanding Leadership in the Field of Environmental Geochemistry and Health. This award was presented to him not only for his contribution to the field of environmental geochemistry and health but also for his continued dedication and commitment to the goals of our Society.
When I was a graduate student, I met Bobby at a Trace Substances in Environmental Health Conference in Columbia, Missouri, during the summer of 1973. At that time, SEGH was in its infancy and the world was just learning about the environment and its potential impact on animals and humans. Bobby and other founding members of SEGH were active members of several National Academy of Sciences Panels on Trace Substances in the early 1970s. Their goal was to define the potential impact of geochemistry on health, heart disease and, eventually, aging. Over the past 30 years, I have had the distinct opportunity to work with Bobby on several grants and projects. I have watched him organize scientists from around the world from academia, industry and government to meet (for no pay) to discuss and determine the relationship between lead in soil and potential health effects. Bobby has the innate ability to bring people together to work hard in discussing, arguing and synthesizing various positions on the environment. His approach is to have everyone listen to the various perspectives and to come to some middle ground. It is a talent that not many people possess.
Bobby has been President of SEGH, actively participated as Past President, and has taken on the roll of Secretary to keep SEGH moving forward. With his administrative expertise and leadership, he has guided the executive board of SEGH in the development of regional sections, task forces and conferences. He has been on the editorial board of our journal, I think, since its inception and has provided many reviews of submitted papers over the years.
It may be his bigger than life Texas accent, his “good old boy” style or his Marine Corps training or a combination of all three…but they have served him and our Society well. In recognition of his professionalism in the field of environmental geochemistry and health, his tireless efforts in working for the Society of Environmental Geochemistry and Health and his ability to bring scientists together to work on understanding and advancing the field of environmental geochemistry and health, we honour Dr. Bobby G. Wixson with the Julian Chisolm Jr. Award for his outstanding leadership.
Betsy T. Kagey
In 1989, the Society formed a Task Force on Lead in Soil. The membership
of the Society was uniquely capable in this area because of its broad
interdisciplinary nature and because many of the most prominent researchers
in this area were active in the Society. The Task Force made a major contribution
with its recommendations on how to determine an acceptable level of lead
in soil.
Encouraged by this success, the Society in l991 formed a Task Force on Arsenic. The motivation for this was that the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) was faced with a law suit requiring it to establish a Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for arsenic in drinking water. This effort would require a risk assessment for arsenic and therefore would have wide-ranging impacts, not only on water, but also other media and programs of the Agency. Many abandoned mining and smelting sites have high levels of arsenic in soils. Arsenic represents half of the carcinogenic potency in coal and oil fly ash. The Society felt that its members could contribute to the development of a reasonable and protective approach to this effort.
The Executive Board asked Dr. Chappell and Dr. Charles Abernathy to begin the effort as the co-chairs of the Task Force. The Board also asked us to launch the effort with a major international conference. We began developing a list of names of members of the Task Force and planning for the conference. The Task Force has 12 members. Four are from academia, five are from government (four from EPA), and three are from the private sector (consulting firms). There are three risk assessors, three epidemiologists, three toxicologists, two soil scientists, and one analytical chemist (now deceased) on the Task Force.
The names, affiliations and areas of expertise of the Task Force Members are:
Dr. Charles Abernathy, Co-Chair, US EPA, Toxicology
Dr. Barbara Beck, Gradient Corporation, Toxicology
Dr. Kenneth Brown, K.G. Brown, Inc. Epidemiology
Dr. Rebecca Calderon, US EPA, Epidemiology
Dr. Rufus Chaney, USDA, Soil Science
Dr. Willard Chappell, Co-Chair, University of Colorado Denver (Retired),
Risk Assessment
Dr. Rick Cothern, US EPA (Retired), Risk Assessment
Dr. Kurt Irgolic (Deceased), University of Graz (Austria), Analytical
Chemistry
Dr. Warner North, Northworks, Risk Assessment
Dr. David Thomas, US EPA, Toxicology
Dr. Iain Thornton, Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine
(London) (Retired), Soil Science
Dr. Theodora Tsongas, Oregon State Health Department, Epidemiology
The First International Conference on Arsenic Exposure and Health was held in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, in July, 1993. This conference was very successful. There were 150 participants with wide international participation. The Proceedings were published in 1995 under “Arsenic: Exposure and Health” by Science and Technology Letters. A Workshop on Epidemiology and Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetics of Arsenic was held in Annapolis, Maryland, USA, in June, 1994. It was at this workshop that the Task Force and the arsenic research community became aware of the tragic situation in West Bengal, India where millions of people are at risk from high arsenic concentrations (up to 4 mg/L) in their drinking water and hundreds of thousands are estimated to be suffering from arsenic toxicity as demonstrated by the classic symptoms of hyper- and hypo-pigmentation and hyperkeratosis.
The Second International Conference on Arsenic Exposure and Health Effects was held in San Diego, California, USA, in June, 1995. The proceedings were published by Chapman and Hall in 1997. The participants came from many countries and heard their colleagues describe problems in many countries in Asia, Central Europe, Central and South America.
The Task Force had several meetings, generally in conjunction with the arsenic conferences or other conferences such as those of the Society of Toxicology, which were normally attended by some members. In 1997 the Task Force published an article entitled “Inorganic Arsenic: A Need and an Opportunity to Improve Risk Assessment.” in Environmental Health Perspectives (Volume 105, pages 1060-1067). In this article the Task Force summarized the state of knowledge, pointed out knowledge gaps and recommended research needs. This was the final effort involving all Task Force members. Since then the conferences have been organized by Chappell, Abernathy and Calderon.
The reports from various countries were very interesting in the variety of mechanisms by which people were exposed to elevated amounts of arsenic. In some areas such as West Bengal of India and Inner Mongolian A.R. of China the magnitude of the public health problem is immense. For some time there had been the suspicion of a major problem in Bangladesh. The tragic situation in Bangladesh, apparently worse than that in India, was highlighted in the Third International Conference which was held July 13-15, 1998 in San Diego, California. The international contingent at the conferences has grown each time with most of the international participants from Asia. The Proceedings of this conference were published by Elsevier in 1999.
The Fourth and Fifth International Conferences on Arsenic Exposure and
Health were held in San Diego, California in 2000 and 2002, respectively.
At each successive conference the numbers of participants has grown. There
were approximately 210 participants at the last conference. The proceedings
for the 2000 conference were also published by Elsevier in 2001. The proceedings
for the 2002 are now being prepared and are expected to be published by
Elsevier in 2003.
Each conference has identified new countries where, such as India, serious
public health problems exist. In the 2002 conferences speakers described
the situations in Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. In these countries
the effort is just beginning and little is known yet about the extent
of human suffering, but groundwaters used for drinking have been shown
to have concentrations similar to those in India and Bangladesh where
human toxicity is widespread.
Also each conference has given the participants the latest knowledge in
areas such as epidemiology, metabolism, mechanisms of toxicity, analytical
methods, patient treatment and remediation technology. Over time the pace
of discovery has increased at a remarkable pace. The latest conference
in 2002 displayed a remarkable advance in knowledge since the previous
conference in 2000.
The primary contribution of the Task Force has been the series of international conferences. At present it appears that there will be support for a sixth conference in 2004. This conference is without doubt the premier arsenic conference in the world. It attracts the best arsenic researchers in the world. It provides a venue where not only can the participants hear the latest research findings, but they can also network with each other. This has led to the development of many collaborative efforts that might not have happened without the conference.
The efforts of the task force would not have been possible without support from the private and public sector for the task force and/or the conference. These include:
US EPA
ATSDR/CDC
NIEHS
HEALTH CANADA
UNICEF
ELECTRIC POWER RESEARCH INSTITUTE (EPRI)
AMERICAN WATER WORKS ASSOCIATION (AWWA)
AMERICAN WATER WORKS ASSOCIATION RESEARCH FOUNDATION (AWWARF)
AMERICAN MINING CONFERENCE (AMC)
INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON METALS IN THE ENVIRONMENT (ICME)
ARCO
KENNECOTT CORPORATION
We are grateful to these organizations for their support.
Willard R. Chappell
Society for Environmental Geochemistry and Health
4th Asia Pacific Symposium on Environmental Geochemistry
to be held at
Curtin University of Technology
Perth, Western Australia
January 18th-20th, 2005
The three-day symposium will be preceded and followed by field excursions.
Papers and posters within the theme of Environmental
Geochemistry and Health are welcomed.
For more information and to receive a copy of the first circular please contact:
Organising Secretary
APSEG4
EIGG
Brodie Hall Building
1 Turner Avenue
Technology Park
Bentley, WA 6102
Australia
Tel: +61-8-9266-3577/7824
Fax: +61-8-9266-7824
Email: apseg4@curtin.edu.au
Website: www.apseg4.curtin.edu.au
We have moved the section bank account to Hong Kong from March 2003. Dr.
N.S. Duzgoren-Aydin is our new Treasurer (Asia Pacific SEGH). She will
manage the membership and the section account. Her contact address is:
Dr. N.S. Duzgoren-Aydin
Department of Earth Sciences
James Lee Science Building
The University of Hong Kong
Pokfulam Road,
Hong Kong
E-mail: nsaydin@hku.hk
Fax: +852 2517 6912
Tel: +852 2241 5473
Xiangdong Li
President, Asia-Pacific section
The 23rd Annual European Conference, Spring 2005, may be held in Athens, Greece (to be confirmed).
SEGH Meetings
22nd Annual European Conference on Environmental Geochemistry and Health
Location: University of Sussex, England
Dates: 5-7 April, 2004
Contact: Dr. Michael Ramsey
(m.h.ramsey@sussex.ac.uk)
University of Sussex, Brighton, England
6th International Conference on Arsenic Exposure (to be confirmed)
Location: San Diego, USA
Dates: 25-29 July 2004
Contact: Dr. Willard Chappell
(wchappel@carbon.cudenver.edu)
University of Colo-Denver, Denver CO, USA
4th Asia Pacific Symposium on Environmental Geochemistry
Location: Perth, Western Australia
Dates: 18-20 January, 2005
Website: www.apseg4.curtin.edu.au
Contact: Organising Secretary
(apseg4@curtin.edu.au)
APSEG4, EIGG, Brodie Hall Building, 1 Turner Avenue, Technology Park,
Bentley, WA 6102, Australia
Other Meetings of Interest
6th International Symposium on Environmental Geochemistry (ISEG)
Location: Edinburgh, UK
Dates: 7-11 September, 2003
Website: www.iseg2003.com
Contact: Dr. John G. Farmer
(J.G.Farmer@ed.ac.uk)
2nd International Conference on Remediation of Contaminated Sediments
Location Venice, Italy
Dates 30 September – 3 October, 2003
Website: www.battelle.org/environment/er/conferences /sedimentscon/default.stm
Contact: Gina Melaragno
(sedimentscon@batelle.org)
19th Annual International Conference on Soils, Sediments and Water
Location: Amherst, Massachusetts, USA
Dates: 20-23 October, 2003
Website: www.UMassSoils.com
Contact: Denise Leonard
(dleonard@schoolph.umass.edu)
5th International Conference on Environmental Geochemistry in the Tropics (GEOTROP03) (to be confirmed)
Location: Haikou, Hainan, China
Dates 26-31 October, 2003
Website:
Contact:
7th International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant (ICMGP)
Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
Dates: 27 June- 2 July, 2004
Contact: Dr. Milena Horvat
(milena.horvat@ijs.si)
Department of Environmental Sciences, Jozef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39,
SI-1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Acid Rain 2005 (7th International Conference on Acid Deposition)
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Dates: June 2005
Contact: acid2005@chmi.cz
Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, Santroch Jaroslav, Na Sabatce 17,
CZ-143 06 Prague 4, Czech Republic
President John G. Farmer
University of Edinburgh,
Scotland (J.G.Farmer@ed.ac.uk)
Vice-President Andrew Hunt
SUNY Upstate Medical
University, Syracuse, NY, USA (AHUNT2@TWCNY.RR.COM)
Secretary Bobby G. Wixson
(Past-Pres.)
Springfield, MO, USA
(DRBGWIXSON@aol.com)
Treasurer Nord L. Gale (Past-Pres.)
University of MO-Rolla, Rolla,
MO, USA (nlgale@umr.edu)
Councillors Malcolm J. Brown
British Geological Survey,
England (mjbro@bgs.ac.uk)
John Carter
The Doe Run Company,
Viburnum, MO, USA
(jcarter@doerun.com)
Joy Carter
University of Glamorgan
Pontypridd, CF37 1DL
(jcarter@glam.ac.uk)
Xiangdong Li
(Chair, Asia/Pacific)
Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
(cexdli@polyu.edu.hk)
Aradhana Mehra
(Chair, Europe)
University of Derby, England
(A.Mehra@derby.ac.uk)
Howard Mielke
Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA, USA (hmielke@xula.edu)
Joyce Tsuji
EXPONENT, Bellevue, WA, USA
(tsujij@exponent.com)
Ron T. Watkins
Curtin University of
Technology, Perth, Australia
(iwatkins@info.curtin.edu.au)
Past Presidents Richard Cothern
Chevy Chase, MD, USA
(rcothern@core.com)
Jim Fricke
Resource Management
Consultants, Midvale, Utah,
USA (jim@rmc-ut.com)
Ron Fuge
University of Wales,
Aberystwyth,
Wales (rrf@aber.ac.uk)
Betsy T. Kagey
Cumberland, MD, USA
(bkagey@mail.frostburg.edu)
Iain Thornton
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, England (i.thornton@imperial.ac.uk)
Task Force Willard Chappell
Chair University of Colo-Denver,
Denver, CO, USA
(wchappel@carbon.cudenver.edu)
Journal Editors Brian E. Davies (Past Pres.)
Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA (bedavies@bellsouth.net)
Ming H. Wong
Hong Kong Baptist University,
Hong Kong, China
(mhwong@hkbu.edu.hk)
Interface Editor Margaret C. Graham
University of Edinburgh,
Scotland (Margaret.Graham@ed.ac.uk)