Medical geology is the study of the relationships between geoenvironmental factors and the health of plants, animals and humans. BGS has extensive expertise researching medical geology issues in the UK and internationally and the association between environmental geochemistry and health in particular.

Geochemistry and health issues can arise as a consequence of a lack of essential nutrients in geological materials such as soil and water, resulting in inadequate uptake into plants, animals and humans via the food chain. The ability of the natural environment to provide adequate essential nutrients is of prime importance to agricultural management. Issues can also be caused by exposure to high concentrations of potentially harmful chemical substances in the environment (air; dust; soil; water; foodstuffs). Elevated concentrations of potentially harmful substances can occur naturally, as a consequence of geological and other environmental processes, or as a result of pollution by human activities.

Medical geology and geochemistry and health investigations examine the source, dispersion, behaviour, uptake and health impacts of chemical substances in the environment to aid ecosystem management and health protection. In the UK, much of this work has been carried out using the G-BASE and  geochemistry datasets. 

51ÁÔÆæ is an international leader in the development of methods for the measurement, modelling and understanding of the mobility of chemical substances in the environment and in the determination of the bioaccessibility of potentially harmful substances to aid health hazard assessments.

In addition, extensive medical geology programmes are carried out by the Ìý() and by the 51ÁÔÆæ Groundwater programme.

Our research

Measures of personal deprivation and geochemistry are gaining interest from different sectors. This can be in relation to where a person lives, access to green space (parks and gardens) and the population density of a region. We carry out research that includes soil contamination and dust from soil as markers of potential deprivation and, in particular, crime.

For one case study we investigated the spatial relationships between chemical land quality and deprivation indicators in Glasgow, where generalised linear modelling of respiratory cases showed significant associations with overall soil metal concentration (Morrison et al., 2013). 

More recently, we used total soil element concentrations (lead, selenium and cerium) in UK urban centres with three socio-economic factors associated with personal deprivation, population density and environmental deprivation to model crime deprivation (Cave et al., 2018).

Potentially harmful substances (PHS) in soils are derived from both geogenic and anthropogenic sources. Measuring their concentration in soils and sediments is an important tool for monitoring environmental pollution. Naturally occurring PHS are associated with the presence of different soil minerals, which depends on the underlying geology. Anthropogenic PHS are as result of human activity, for example through the exploitation of mineral resources, the production or the use of pesticides, coal burning and past use of leaded petrol in densely populated conurbations.

Measuring the total concentrations of these elements provides broad evidence for possible contamination, but in order to assess their potential mobility in the environment we require an understanding of the chemical form. Chemical reactions and physical and biological processes occurring in the natural environment govern whether PHS are present in forms that are mobile and therefore easily extractable (potentially bioaccessible), which could pose a threat to human health, or are immobile and bound tightly in the soil matrix. The information helps us to identify the sources of bioaccessible PHS and information that can be used to immobilise them.

We have developed and use a simple laboratory extraction and data processing method to determine these chemical forms known as chemometric identification of substrates and element distributions, or CISED.

This type of information allows us understand why certain PHS from soils and sediments at urban and rural locations are mobile. One way in which we use this information is to provide a line of evidence to support human health risk assessment.

Understanding and assessing geochemical hazards in the environment has been a part of the BGS portfolio of research for over 50 years. We have an international reputation for looking at the relationships between the natural environment, pollution and human health. This allows us to:

• understand the bioaccessibility and environmental availability of contaminants and their relationship to human and animal health
• characterise and understand the sources of natural and anthropogenic contamination in the surface environment
• assess the influence of ordinary environmental factors on the geographical distribution of health problems

These relationships are complex to establish and understand, but have a major impact on every person, every day of our lives as we interact with our surroundings. Some of these relationships are obvious and more easily understood whereas others, the silent hazard, are not easily observed and take longer to manifest. This research aims to build a cross-disciplinary framework and body of knowledge, to better understand the impacts of geochemical hazards of soil on human health under our four research themes.

The interdisciplinary nature of our research allows us to work with a wide range of sectors (UK and international), including government, local authority and land development. It is an umbrella for collaborative working with the medical and social sciences, engineers, urban planners, contaminated land practitioners and more. As well as collecting soils for specific projects we use the G-BASE soil collection and associated data. 

We work with a range of other BGS research areas.  These include:

• other BGS colleagues researching geochemical hazards and health issues
• the , which also provides laboratory services
• environmental statisticians
• groundwater research
• urban geoscience

Our external collaborators include:

• the
• the
• UK and international universities and research organisations
• commercial organisations, e.g. ;

Publications and research papers

Our research papers can be found using the , 51ÁÔÆæ staff web pages and using the or resources.