Medical Geology Class Website
Welcome to the class webpage for GEOL 295B, Medical Geology - Spring
2010! I'll be posting powerpoint presentations, reading
assignments, and other information here during the course of the
semester.
The syllabus is available HERE
Week 1 - Introduction to
Medical Geology and the history of asbestos use
Powerpoint
presentation
Week 2 - Geology of Asbestos
Deposits: We will be reading two papers for week 2, one for each
of the 2 mine sites we will be considering, the Vermont Asbestos Group
Mine near Eden, VT and the Libby Vermiculite Mine in Montana:
Ballen
et al., 2009 - Summary of the VAG mine
Bandli
and Gunter, 2006 - Summary of the Libby mine
Week 3 - Mineralogy of
Asbestos:
Levitan
et al., 2009, Mineralogy of minerals at the VAG mine
Gunter
et al., 2007, RIMG volme 67 - pages 453 - 472
Also see this webpage at the SERC (Science Education Resource Center)
that describes many of these techniques in more detail:
http://serc.carleton.edu/research_education/geochemsheets/index.html
Week 4 - Health Effects of
Asbestos Exposure:
Fubini
and Fenoglio, 2007, Toxic Potential of Mineral Dusts
Mossman
et al., 1990, Asbestos pathogenicity
Week 5 - Quantifying Risk of
asbestos exposure
VT
Dept. of Health VAG Mine study (Original)
Wilson
et al., 2005 - Risk assessment of asbestos exposure from WTC dust
Vital Statistics
Website
Week 6 - Regulatory responses
to asbestos hazards
On the EPA website on Laws and Regulatins we are going to look at
several things to start thinking about how regulatory agencies have
responded to asbestos as a health problem
(http://www.epa.gov/asbestos/pubs/asbreg.html)
- Go over sections on absestos in 40 CFR Part 763 on Asbestos
(don't read the whole thing!) - generate a list of what this regulatory
document requires
- Go through the documents on asbestos ban and phasepout (there are
4 Federal Register notices and a 1999 clarification document)
We will also look at a few items related to the State and Federal
Response to issues at the VAG mine on the VT ANR website at
http://www.anr.state.vt.us/dec/wastediv/SMS/VAG.htm
- Look through the links to see what actions EPA and the State have
taken at the mine so far, and to see what they might do next
Week 7 - Legal proceeding in
asbestos cases - Grace v. U.S. as an example
The criminal trial Grace v. U.S. Government,
concerning was chronicled by a University
of Montana
group, a joint Law School – Journalism School exercise. We will use this to become familiar with some
of the basics of legal cases and especially how scientific evidence
(both
geological and medical) is presented and evaluated.
The web site is at http://www.umt.edu/gracecase/about-2-2/index.html,
there is a lot there, the following is a guide of pages and topical
ideas for
you to focus on though I encourage you to look into it in more depth to
gain
insight on how an environmental legal case works.
First, under the section on “How a criminal
trial proceeds” investigate
the differences between civil and criminal cases, and the major details
and
definitions used in the courtroom (including hearsay and rules of
evidence,
jury selection/function, rules of the courtroom, standard of proof, and
the
witnesses).
Next investigate the pretrial legal issues
surrounding the
Grace case, specifically how the case was framed with respect to the
clean air
act and contested evidence – scientific contenstation and also
Daubert motions
regarding selected expert witnesses.
Additionally look at the expert witness section and the
arguments those
witnesses address.
Now investigate the government and defense legal
issues
stressed at the trial - focusing on the
major themes both sides will ‘use’ in the trial
Next is a listing of reports on how the trial
proceeded day
by day – feel free to look into all of it, but focus on the
following days and
especially focused on trial introduction of scientific evidence:
At the end of every week’s blogging, a
weekly review (e.g.
Week 3: Four Witnesses finish testifying) is included – this is a
good way to
see an overview of progress – these can be found in March 5, 12,
20, 29, April
10, 18, May 1
Additionally, parts of specific days have more
details on
some of the scientific evidence, review:
March 16, 2009 – air sampling cross and
winchite vs.
tremolite
March 17, 2009 – the hamster study
March 19, 2009 – tremolite counting and
‘binding’ efforts
April 15 – toxicity studies
April 20 – dose responses
April 30 – EPA overestimating risk?
May 6 – closing arguments and jury
instruction
Week 9 - Arsenic Introduction
Vaughan, 2006 - Introduction to Arsenic
O'Day, 2006 - Arsenic Mineralogy
Week 10 - Arsenic Mobility
Charlet and Polya, 2006 - Arsenic mobility in SE Asia
Price and Pichler, 2006 - Arsenic released in Florian groundwater storage aquifers
Week 11 - Arsenic Toxicity and Dose
Hopenhayn, 2006 - Overview of chronic arsenic exposure
Bodwell et al., 2006 - Low-dose effects of arsenic
Week 12 - Arsenic regulations - Drinking Water standards
Smith and Smith, 2004 - Assessemnt of different drinking water standards and synergistic cancer effects