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Earth Materials and Human Health

Background

Earth materials generated by both natural and anthropogenic processes have been increasingly recognized as potential sources of illness in humans. For example, inhalation exposures to asbestos, silica, and some metal-rich dusts in industrial or occupational settings have been recognized for decades as triggers for certain diseases. Health concerns also arise from exposures to other anthropogenic atmospheric particulates, such as automobile exhaust, urban air pollution, smelting and coal combustion byproducts, and debris from building demolition and incidents such as the World Trade Center collapse. Increasingly, environmental exposures to dusts and other atmospheric particulates (such as naturally-occurring asbestos, silica, volcanic ash, volcanic gas condensates, wildfire smoke, and dusts containing pathogens) are also being recognized as potential health concerns. Soils are recognized for their potential to affect human health—as sources for dusts, sources for pathogens, and as sources for toxicity via any contained toxicants such as heavy metals or organic chemicals.

The Earth Materials and Human Health Project (EMHHP), in collaboration with medical and public health experts, is developing and applying a variety of earth science methods to help interpret the geologic links between earth materials and human health problems. The project's scientific results will provide a sound earth science basis for more informed, effective regulatory policies and remediation strategies.

The project is currently (fiscal years 2005-2009) funded primarily by the USGS Mineral Resources Program (MRP), with some additional funding from the Earth Surface Dynamics Program. The project is a follow-up of the MRP-funded Mineral Dusts and Human Health Project (MDHHP), which ran from fiscal years 2001-2004; key MDHHP activities, outcomes and publications are presented in a separate web site.

This project involves extensive collaboration with other USGS personnel and projects, and also health experts in a number of Federal and state agencies. Examples of other USGS projects with which this project is collaborating include the Near-Surface Processes, Industrial Minerals, Southwest Climate Change, Transoceanic Dusts, Surveys and Analysis, Geochemical Landscapes, and Wildfire Effects projects. Health experts with whom the project is collaborating include scientists from USEPA, NIOSH, OSHA, CDC, ATSDR, Public Health Service, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, University of Arizona, University of Colorado, SUNY Stonybrook, and other agencies and universities.

Project Tasks

• Task 1: Chemical, mineralogical, and isotopic characterization of rocks and industrial deposits containing asbestiform, fibrous, and other potentially hazardous minerals
• Task 2: Earth science characterization of mineral dusts and other earth materials from a health perspective
• Task 3: Using imaging, field and laboratory spectroscopy to map and analyze asbestos and other fibrous and potentially hazardous materials
• Task 4: Geologic terrains and environments that form fibrous mineral deposits
• Task 5: Rapid characterization and analysis methods

Current project highlights

• Report released on naturally-occurring asbestos in the Eastern United States
• Report released on remote sensing identification and mapping of potential asbestos-forming minerals in serpentite-bearing rocks of El Dorado and Plumas Counties, California
• USGS activities tied to the EPA World Trade Center Technical Expert Review Panel
• Four papers published in the American Chemical Society Special Volume on the World Trade Center collapse
• Rapid response characterization of ash and rocks from the 2004-2005 Mount St. Helens eruptions
• Characterization of lead-bearing mine wastes and edible soils from Kabwe, Zambia

Project Publications and Presentations

Project Chiefs:

Project Staff