Medical Geochemistry

This book describes geochemical methods to investigate interaction between geological materials and fluids and humans. Covers health effects of inhaling lithogenic materials, the use of human hair as a biomarker of exposure and bioincorporation, and much more.

This book includes a collection of chapters illustrating the application of geochemical methods to investigate the interactions between geological materials and fluids with humans. Examples include the incorporation and human health effects of inhaling lithogenic materials, the reactivity of biological fluids with geological materials, and the impact on nascent biomineral formation. Biomineralization is investigated in terms of mineralogy, morphology, bone chemistry, and pathological significance with a focus on the health impacts of "foreign" geological/environmental trace element incorporation. One of the contribution is devoted to particulate matter, the presence of metals and metalloids in the environment, and the possibility of using human hair as a biomarker between environmental/geological exposure and human bioincorporation. Other chapters focus on the last advances on the analytical methods and instrumentational approaches to investigating the chemistry of biological fluids and tissues.

Medical Geochemistry is a new branch of Earth Science which borrows methods and approaches from basic geochemical science and applies them evaluating interactions between the environment and geology and humans (e.g. bone, gastric, lung and dermatological) Gives a comprehensive and focused approach with respect to applying geochemical techniques Reviews expertise on the geochemical methods used to understand the relationships that occur between human health and environment

Autorentext

Dr. Paolo Censi is an Associate Professor at the University of Palermo, Italy, where he is specialized in Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen isotope geochemistry of various rocks and in environmental investigations on meteoric water systems via isotopic and trace element studies.
Dr. Thomas Darrah is an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA. He is specialized in the impact of metals in human bodies, like for example the metallomic impacts of metals in bone.
Prof. Yigal Erel is working at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. He is specialist of the influence of metals in the environment.

Inhalt
Preface.- How trace element contents in bronchoalveolar lavages can probe the human exposure to inhaled particulates.- Geochemistry and Biochemistry - insights into the fate and transport of Pt-based chemotherapy drugs.- Atmospheric Particulate Matter (PM) in the Middle East: Toxicity, trans-boundary transport and influence of synoptic conditions.- Reaction path modeling: theoretical aspects and applications.- An observation on the composition of urinary calculi: environment influence.- Magnetite minerals in the human brain: what's their role?.- Chemometrics and Medical Geochemistry: A brief tutorial.- Dust, metals and metalloids in the environment: from air to hair.- Metal Geochemistry of a Brackish Lake: Étang Saumâtre, Haiti.- Trace Element Composition of Modern Human Bone.