Version 1
: Received: 14 June 2018 / Approved: 15 June 2018 / Online: 15 June 2018 (11:47:52 CEST)
How to cite:
ARHIN, E.; Kazapoe, R.; Mahamuda, A. Medical Geology and Health: An Approach to Address Diseases Related to Natural Environment-Reviewing the Ghanaian Situation. Preprints2018, 2018060251. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201806.0251.v1
ARHIN, E.; Kazapoe, R.; Mahamuda, A. Medical Geology and Health: An Approach to Address Diseases Related to Natural Environment-Reviewing the Ghanaian Situation. Preprints 2018, 2018060251. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201806.0251.v1
ARHIN, E.; Kazapoe, R.; Mahamuda, A. Medical Geology and Health: An Approach to Address Diseases Related to Natural Environment-Reviewing the Ghanaian Situation. Preprints2018, 2018060251. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201806.0251.v1
APA Style
ARHIN, E., Kazapoe, R., & Mahamuda, A. (2018). Medical Geology and Health: An Approach to Address Diseases Related to Natural Environment-Reviewing the Ghanaian Situation. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201806.0251.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
ARHIN, E., Raymond Kazapoe and Abu Mahamuda. 2018 "Medical Geology and Health: An Approach to Address Diseases Related to Natural Environment-Reviewing the Ghanaian Situation" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201806.0251.v1
Abstract
Inadequate data linking geology and health in Developing Countries contributes immensely to the challenges to identify sources and causes of many of the emerging diseases. Deficiencies and toxicities of trace elements generally impact human and animal health. The review of the geology of Ghana suggests the presence of oxides and sulphide minerals that are released into the natural environment during the geological process of weathering which introduce both essential and, potentially harmful elements. Of great concern is the fact that majority of the Ghanaian population eat locally cultivated food and expect to be nourished from the diet. Furthermore, archived reports on Ghana rural drinking water indicates most of the aquifers are enriched in As and F while deficient in Mg. Medical geology, the emerging discipline that attempts to address the environmental health issues emanating from geological processes is known in developed nations but not much of its activities are recognized in Ghana. This review has identified the concentrations of a number of elements in different geological settings and have linked these concentrations with health issues. There is therefore a need for medical geologists to work together with other disciplines to devise preventive as well as mitigative techniques in addressing many geology related health issues in Ghana.
Keywords
Geological process, geological materials, trace elements, environmental health
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Waste Management and Disposal
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.