Medical Geology and Geohealth

Recently, I have begun working on projects that fall into the realm of medical geology. In doing this, I work with an interdisciplinary team drawing on expertise in biogeochemistry, epidemiology and toxicology, GIS, and social sciences to better understand health outcomes that result from interaction with the environment.  In particular, we are currently exploring the relationship between cases of end-stage renal disease (ERSD) and diabetes associated ESRD (ESRD-DM).  ERSD is similar to Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN), which is an irreversible, lethal kidney disease that occurs in regions of the Balkans.  Occurrence of this disease is linked to the consumption of dissolved organic matter leached from lignite (low-rank coal). It is possible that higher rates of ESRD in the Gulf Coast region may be the result of a BEN-like condition.  Previous work has used GPS to find an increase in incidence rates where groundwater is connected to lignite-containing aquifers in Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana (Ojeda et al., 2018).  Our current work builds on this by looking at both county and zip code level demographic, incidence, and groundwater quality data and mapping those on areas overlying lignite and bituminous beds as well as controls.  As lignite is less altered than bituminous coals, we hypothesize that rates of occurrence of ERSD and ESRD-DM will not be as elevated in regions where aquifers are connected to bituminous beds as they will be where aquifers are connected to lignite beds.  My specific contributions to this project involve looking specifically at dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations from groundwater water quality measurements in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. With a major goal being to create a DOC interpolation for the region.    This can then be used with demographic information and rates of incidence to better understand the linkages of lignite containing aquifers to ESRD in the Gulf Coast region.