Contents

• USGS Activities Related to Human Health  
• Coal Combustion and Respiratory Health in the Navajo Nation
• Contaminants in Groundwater Used for Public Supply
• Future Recreational Water-Quality Nowcast for Pennsylvania's Presque Isle State Park
• Fish Mercury Concentrations Decreased Rapidly in the 1970s and 80s
• Ayotte Receives Environmental Merit Award
• Arsenic and Dust: A Detective Story
• Satellite Tracking Reveals How Wild Birds May Spread Avian Flu
• Effects of Plague on Wildlife May Have Been Underestimated in the Past
• How Do Contaminants Reach Public-Supply Wells?
• New Fact Sheet
• Upcoming Meetings
• New Publications

Newsletter Home

First Systematic Study of the Likely Impacts of Coal Combustion on Respiratory Health in the Shiprock, New Mexico, Area of the Navajo Nation

USGS and Dine' College scientists collecting air samples for the analysis of fine particulate matter during a study of the respiratory health of homeowners in the Shiprock, New Mexico, area. (Larger version)

In collaboration with U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists, Dine' College investigators surveyed 130 homes in the Navajo Nation near Shiprock, New Mexico, and found that one-quarter of those homes had stoves not originally designed for burning coal. The scientists concluded that residents of Shiprock and nearby communities appear to be at greater risk for respiratory disease than people in other communities on the Navajo Reservation based on a concurrent analysis of the geographic location of homes; household risk factors such as fuel, stove type, and use; the composition of locally used coal; and hundreds of thousands of hospital records. They additionally measured and chemically characterized fine particulate matter found in the air inside twenty homes. There are two large coal-fired power plants near Shiprock, with a third in the planning stages. While there is a large body of peer-reviewed literature that correlates coal-fired power plant proximity with risk of respiratory (and cardiovascular) disease, the main focus of this study was not on ambient air quality. Results from this study suggest that the risk could be reduced by making relatively simple and inexpensive changes to home heating methods, such as changing indoor home heating behavior and improving stove quality.

More Information

• For more information contact Joseph E. Bunnell
• Navajo Coal and Air Quality in Shiprock, New Mexico: USGS Fact Sheet 2006-3094
• Navajo coal combustion and respiratory health near Shiprock, New Mexico: Journal of Environmental and Public Health
• Results of a Survey of Residential Home Heating Fuel and Stove Type and Use in the Shiprock Area of the Navajo Nation: USGS Open-File Report 2008–1249

More than one in five (22 percent) source-water samples from public wells contained one or more naturally occurring or man-made contaminants at concentrations greater than human-health benchmarks. (Larger version)

More than 20 percent of untreated water samples from 932 public wells across the United States contained at least one contaminant at levels of potential human-health concern, according to a recent study by USGS scientists. About 105 million people in the United States—more than one-third of the Nation’s population—receive their drinking water from about 140,000 public water systems that use groundwater as their source. Although the quality of finished drinking water (after treatment and before distribution) from these public water systems is regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Safe Drinking Water Act, long-term protection and management of groundwater, a vital source of drinking water, requires an understanding of the occurrence of contaminants in untreated source water. Most (279) of the contaminants analyzed in this study are not federally regulated in finished drinking water under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

In this study by the USGS's National Water Quality Assessment Program, water-quality conditions were assessed in source (untreated) groundwater from 932 public-supply wells, and in source and finished water from a subset of 94 wells. The samples were analyzed for as many as 6 water-quality properties and 337 chemical contaminants, including nutrients, radionuclides, trace elements, pesticides, volatile organic compounds, personal-care and domestic-use products, and manufacturing additives. This study evaluated the occurrence of contaminants in source water from public wells and their potential significance to human health, whether contaminants that occur in source water also occur in finished water after treatment, and the occurrence and characteristics of contaminant mixtures. Contaminants usually co-occurred with other contaminants. This study identifies which contaminant mixtures may be of most concern in groundwater used for public-water supply and can help human-health scientists to target and prioritize toxicity assessments of contaminant mixtures.

More Information

• For more information contact Patricia Toccalino
• USGS New Release: Contaminants in Groundwater Used for Public Supply
• USGS CoreCast: Contaminants in Public Supply Wells, (Podcast)
• Quality of Water from Public-Supply Wells in the United States, USGS National Water-Quality Assessment Program

USGS scientist measuring field parameters (temperature, pH, ...) at Beach 2 at Presque Isle State Park near Erie, Pennsylvania (Larger version)

Presque Isle State Park, near Erie, Pennsylvania, is set to join many other beaches in the Great Lakes region where near real-time information is used to "nowcast" water-quality conditions for recreational waters. A nowcast of recreational water quality is much like a weather forecast except it estimates current conditions rather than future conditions. USGS scientists and their partners plan to develop a web-based nowcast system that will estimate current bacteria levels in the water of the Park's beaches to determine if recreational water-quality standards will be exceeded making the water unsafe to swim in. If succcessful, the nowcast system will be used by beach managers to determine if beach advisories or closings need to be posted to alert the public. A nowcast will prove useful because assessments of recreational water quality will be done in about an hour instead of the old method of assessment that takes about 24 hours. Scientists are now collecting background data on factors such as wave height, turbidity, number of birds on the beach, lake-current direction, rainfall, and wind direction—all are factors that could help predict bacteria concentrations. Funding from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative helped make this work possible.

More Information

• For more information contact Tammy Zimmerman
• USGS New Release: Testing Bacteria Levels for Future Nowcast at Buck Creek State Park, Ohio
• USGS New Release: Testing Bacteria Levels at Six Ohio Lakes for Future Nowcasts
• USGS New Release: Testing Bacteria Levels for Future Nowcast at Grand Lake St. Mary’s State Park, Ohio
• USGS New Release: Testing the Waters on Chicago’s 63rd Street Beach
• Ohio Nowcast
• Predictive Models for Recreational Water Quality
• Presque Isle State Park, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
• Great Lakes Restoration Initiative

Good news for some fishermen--the concentrations of mercury in fish decreased in the 1970s and 80s in most areas sampled across the Nation. Photo courtesy of Mark Brigham (Larger version)

A recent USGS study examined a compilation of state and federal fish-monitoring data for trends in mercury levels in fish in U.S. rivers and lakes from 1969 to 2005. Results showed that 22 of 50 sites sampled across the Nation from 1969 to 1987 showed significant decreases in fish mercury concentrations, whereas only four sites showed increases. Mercury concentrations in fish decreased rapidly in the 1970s and more gradually or not at all during the 1980s. More recently, few changes were observed in fish mercury concentrations from 1996 through 2005. Upward mercury trends in fish occurred in the Southeast. Upward mercury trends in fish in the Southeast were associated with increases in wet mercury deposition measured in the National Mercury Deposition Network in that region.

More Information

• For more information contact Ann Chalmers
• USGS New Release: Technical Announcement: Fish Mercury Concentrations Decrease in the 1970s and 80s; Recent Trends Show Variation
• Mercury in Stream Ecosystems, National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program
• Mercury trends in fish from rivers and lakes in the United States, 1969–2005: Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, Advanced Web release
• Environmental Mercury Mapping, Modeling, and Analysis Database (EMMMA)

USGS Scientist Joseph D. Ayotte Received an Individual Environmental Merit Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for Work on Predicting Arsenic Occurrence in Groundwater

On the 40th anniversary of Earth Day—April 22, 2010—the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency presented USGS Scientist Joseph D. Ayotte with an Individual Environmental Merit Award. Ayotte and his colleagues at the USGS's New Hampshire/Vermont Water Science Center created tools to help regulators better predict arsenic occurrence in groundwater and better understand the correlation between public health and arsenic, one of the most common contaminants found in New England groundwater. Research by Ayotte and his colleagues also allows regulators to understand the correlations between geology and arsenic. Other arsenic investigations in New England have used Ayotte’s work as a foundation for their own.

More Information

• For more information contact Joseph D. Ayotte
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency New Release: New Hampshire Residents Receive Prestigious Regional EPA Environmental Award in Ceremony Recognizing 40th Anniversary of Earth Day

A dust storm from Africa almost obscures the Cape Verde Islands. The islands are approximately 450 kilometers (about 300 mi.) off the west coast of Africa, and total land area is a litter bigger than the State of Rhode Island. African dust can travel all the way across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States. This aerial photo is a MODIS image supplied by NASA. (Larger version)

USGS scientist Suzette Morman's research on arsenic in airborne dusts was published in the June 2010 Issue of Earth Magazine. The article "Arsenic: A Detective Story in Dusts" provides an overview of Morman's research in collaboration with other USGS scientists on the bioaccessibility of arsenic and other toxic metals in African airborne dusts transported to the Caribbean and southeastern United States. Morman’s interest in bioaccessible or soluble metals in geogenic dusts began with her collaboration with USGS scientist Richard L. Reynolds and his team, who conducts research on the conditions and factors that promote or suppress dust emission, with a focus on geologic, ecologic, hydrologic, and climatic processes as well as human activities.

More Information

• For more information contact Suzette Morman
• The Effects of African Dust on Coral Reefs and Human Health
• Effects of Climate Variability and Land Use on American Drylands

Scientists from the University of Tokyo work with USGS scientists to attach a satellite transmitter to the backs of northern pintail ducks in wintering areas of Northern Honshu, Japan. Transmitters are used to evaluate the movements, migration, and areas of overlap of these ducks with North American northern pintails. (Larger version)

For the first time, migratory birds marked with satellite transmitters were tracked during an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus (H5N1) in Asia, providing evidence that wild birds may be partly responsible for the spread of the virus to new areas. Scientists from the USGS Alaska Science Center and the University of Tokyo attached satellite transmitters to 92 northern pintail ducks several months before the H5N1 virus was discovered in dead and dying whooper swans at several wetlands in Japan. They found that 12 percent of marked pintails used the same wetlands as infected swans and that pintails were present at those sites on dates the virus was discovered in swans. The scientists' work does not prove the marked pintails were actually infected with the H5N1 virus or that they definitively contributed to its spread. However, it does demonstrate that pintails satisfied two requirements necessary for migratory birds to spread the virus: they used outbreak sites at times when the virus was present, and some birds migrated long distances within a week of using the sites. Although the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus has not been discovered in North America, it continues to plague the poultry industry throughout Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa and is a serious health threat to humans.

More Information

• For more information contact Jerry Hupp
• USGS New Release: Outbreak Study: Satellite Tracking Reveals How Wild Birds May Spread Avian Flu
• Avian Influenza: Information and On-going Research at the USGS Alaska Science Center

Recovery efforts for the imperiled Utah prairie dog are greatly hampered by the effects of plague. (Larger version)

New results from USGS scientists and their colleagues show that the effects of plague on wildlife may have been underestimated in the past. Plague, a flea-borne bacterial disease, spreads rapidly, causing devastating effects to wildlife and posing risks to human health. Conservation and recovery efforts for imperiled species such as the black-footed ferret and Utah prairie dog are greatly hampered by the effects of plague. The scientists have demonstrated that plague continues to affect the black-footed ferret, one of the most critically endangered mammals in North America, as well as several species of prairie dogs, including the federally threatened Utah prairie dog—even when the disease does not erupt into epidemic form. "The impacts of plague on mammal populations remain unknown for all but a few species, but the impact on those species we have studied raises alarms as well as important questions about how plague might be affecting conservation efforts in general," said Dean Biggins, a USGS wildlife biologist.

More Information

• For more information contact Dean Biggins
• USGS New Release: Plagued by Plague: New Research Shows Widespread Risk to Wildlife
• Symposium on the Ecology of Plague and Its Effects on Wildlife
• Ecology of Plague
• Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, Vol. 10 No. 1, Special Issue: Symposium on the Ecology of Plague and Its Effects on Wildlife

New USGS Groundwater Studies Explain What, When, and How Contaminants May Reach Public-Supply Wells Used for Drinking Water

Different flow paths, illustrated above, and other factors, such as groundwater age and chemistry, can account for why some public-supply wells are vulnerable to contamination and others aren’t. The diagram is a modified version of one in USGS Circular 1224 (Larger version)

Differences in the chemistry of the groundwater, the age of groundwater, and flow paths within aquifer systems can explain why all wells are not equally vulnerable to contamination. That's the results of several USGS studies on groundwater contamination across the Nation. USGS scientists tracked the movement of contaminants in groundwater and in public-supply wells in four aquifers in California, Connecticut, Nebraska, and Florida. They found that the importance of factors such as groundwater age and flow paths differs among the various aquifer settings. The findings in the four different aquifer systems can be applied to similar aquifer settings and wells throughout the Nation. "Our findings can help public-supply well managers protect drinking water sources by prioritizing their monitoring programs and improving decisions related to land use planning, well modifications, or changes in pumping scenarios that might help to reduce movement of contaminants to wells," said USGS scientist Sandra Eberts.

More Information

• For more information contact Sandra Eberts
• USGS New Release: Studies Reveal Why Drinking Water Wells are Vulnerable to Contamination
• USGS CoreCast: Why Some Public-Supply Wells are More Vulnerable to Contamination Than Others, (Podcast)
• Understanding Contaminant Occurrence in Public-Supply Wells, USGS National Water-Quality Assessment Program

USGS Releases a New Fact Sheet on How USGS Science Serves Public Health

The USGS is a source of natural science information vital for understanding the quantity and quality of our earth and living resources. This new fact sheet summarizes the USGS's role in providing the natural science information needed by health researchers, policy makers, and the public to safeguard public health.

Buxton, H.T., 2010, USGS science serves public health: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2010-3004, 2 p.

16th International Interdisciplinary Conference on the Environment, Tucson, Arizona, September 22-25, 2010

The Interdisciplinary Environmental Association (IEA) is conducting its 16th International Interdisciplinary Conference on the Environment. The conference is motivated by the increasing need to combine ideas and research findings from different disciplines to enhance understanding of the interactions between the natural environment and human institutions.

Meeting Web Site

Sixth Biennial Scientific Symposium - Prenatal and Early Life Exposures: How Environmental Toxins Affect the Course of Childhood, Houston, Texas, October 21-22, 2010

The symposium will examine the role of environmental toxins on the health of infants and young children. Scientists at the symposium will present recent evidence-based research with the objective of increasing scientific knowledge on the recognition and prevention of prenatal and early childhood exposures to environmental toxicants.

Meeting Web Site

Topical Session "Geochemistry of Atmospheric Particulates: From Sources to Impacts on the Environment and Health" at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado, October 31 - November 3, 2010

The USGS is sponsoring this topical session, and the conveners are seeking to present an interdisciplinary approach during the session to bridging the gap between geologic sources, geochemical processes, and health. Health effects of exposure to atmospheric particulates derived from earth materials are increasingly of interest to the public health and animal health communities, and remain poorly understood. Further, the ecological consequences of atmospheric particulate matter have not been well explored across disciplines. Contributions from the public health, veterinary, ecological, and geoscience communities will be presented.

Conveners: Jean M. Morrison, USGS, Suzette A. Morman, Geoffrey S. Plumlee, USGS

Meeting Web Site

Special Session "Climate Change - Drylands, Mineral Dust, and Human Welfare" at the 138th American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting and Exposition, Denver, Colorado, November 6-10, 2010

Several USGS scientists will be featured in the topical session "Climate Change - Drylands, Mineral Dust, and Human Welfare" at the APHA Meeting to be held in Denver, Colorado, on November 6-10, 2010.

Session Description

Climate variations and poverty are but two of many triggers involved in the process known as desertification, which threatens semi arid and arid lands worldwide. Estimates indicate that desertification directly affects seventy percent of all drylands and about one sixth of the world’s population. Worldwide concern for the consequences, which include increases in water and food borne illness and respiratory disease, prompted the United Nations to form the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in 1994. This session will begin by examining the geologic setting, with emphasis on changes in geomorphology, hydrology, vegetation, and dust potential of arid and semi arid lands with a changing climate. The composition of dusts from the Sahel region of Africa will be explored to elucidate changes and the ramifications for public health. These results stem from a larger study investigating the relations between atmospheric transport of African dust and human health. Finally, dust sources in North America will be discussed, including the conditions and processes of dust emission from them, and physical and chemical compositions of dust from different sources.

USGS Presentations

• Geologic background to desertification, by Nicholas Lancaster (Desert Research Institute, formally with the USGS) — An overview of the geologic setting and dust potential of arid and semi arid lands with a changing climate
• Long-distance atmospheric transport of African dust and chemical pollutants--Implications for ecosystem and human health, by Virginia Garrison (USGS), William Foreman (USGS), Susan Genualdi (Environment Canada), Michael Majewski (USGS), Azad Mohammed (University of the West Indies), Staci Massey Simonich (Oregon State University), and Paul Lamothe (USGS) — Information on investigations of the effects of transported African dust on coral reefs and human health
• Bioaccessibility and concentration of metal(loids) in African dust, by Suzette Morman (USGS), Virginia Garrison (USGS), Geoffrey Plumlee (USGS), Heather Lowers (USGS), and Joseph E. Bunnell (USGS) — An exploration of the composition and bioaccessibility of dusts transported from Africa
• Anticipating the health risks of atmospheric dust on the basis of dust-source settings, by Richard Reynolds (USGS), George Breit (USGS), Suzette Morman (USGS), Harland Goldstein (USGS), Slobodan Nickovic (World Meteorological Organization), William Sprigg (University of Arizona), Gary Clow (USGS), Mark E. Miller (USGS), Marith Reheis (USGS), Frank Urban (USGS), and John W. Whitney (USGS) — A discussion of dust sources in North America including the conditions and processes of dust emission from them, and physical and chemical compositions of dust from different sources

Agenda

Meeting Web Site

Human Health and the Environment Related Sessions at SETAC North America 31st Annual Meeting: Bridging Science with Communities, Portland, Oregon, November 7-11, 2010

At the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Meeting this fall in Portland, Oregon, several sessions related to human health and the environment are scheduled.

• Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals in the Environment
• Pharmaceuticals: Fate and Transport
• Environmental risk assessment of pharmaceuticals: Industry advancing the science
• Human-health and Ecological Risk Assessment of Contaminated Sediments
• Fate, exposure, and effects of Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs)
• Risk Assessment of Veterinary Pharmaceuticals in the Environment

More information is available on the meeting's Web site.

Meeting Web Site

Environmental Health 2011: Resetting our Priorities, Salvador, Brazil, February 6-9, 2011

This conference will provide an interdisciplinary platform to exchange knowledge and learn about the latest issues in environmental health. The main themes of the conference are:

• Environmental health research
• Impacts of technological innovations (including analytic methods)
• Globalization and policy changes to environmental health
• Climate change
• Global environmental disparities
• Environmental health emergencies
• Environmental health ethics
• Human capital resources

Meeting Web Site

Environmental Health Risk 2011: 6th International Conference on the Impact of Environmental Factors on Health, Riga, Latvia, July 25-27, 2011

The conference's objective is to provide a forum for the dissemination and exchange of information on the diverse aspects of the impact of environmental factors on health across different disciplines. The papers presented at this conference and past conferences are permanently archived in the Wessex Institute's eLibrary.

Meeting Web Site

4th International Conference on Medical Geology (GEOMED 2011), Bari, Italy, September 20-25, 2011

The International Medical Geology Association (IMGA) and the Italian Chapter of IMGA are sponsoring the 4th International Conference on Medical Geology on September 20-25, 2011, in Italy. The conference provides an opportunity for mineralogists, physicians, soil scientists, toxicologists, geochemists, biologists, chemists, and other specialists to share ideas and knowledge on the impact of the environment on public and animal health. The conference will focus on the following themes:

• Air, Soil and Water Pollution and Quality
• Minerals and the Environment
• Environmental Toxicology and Epidemiology
• Biominerals and Biomaterials
• Risk Assessment and Communication in Medical Geology

Meeting Web Site