Selinus, Olle, Brian Alloway, Jose A. Centeno, Robert B. Finkelman, Ron Fuge, Ulf Lindh and Pauline Smedley (eds), 2005 Essentials of Medical Geology: impacts of the natural environment on public health, Burlington, Elsevier Academic Press, 812 pages.

General readers be warned, if you should cautiously pick-up the Essentials of Medical Geology: impacts of the natural environment on public health, figure one, on the first page of the preface, is the periodic table. Now for chemists, geologists, and a number of other disciplines starting a discussion with the periodic table is old hat. I was concerned this book would overwhelm me when I read the opening quote from Paracelsus (1493-1541). Those with a basic interest in public health fear not for the editors have taken pains to make the writing and subject matter accessible to most. This is good because the Inuit regions of Nunavik, Nunavut, and the Northwest Territories will see value in the Essentials of Medical Geology. According to the editors of the volume, medical geology is the “science dealing with the relationship between natural geological factors and health in humans and animals and with understanding the influence of ordinary environmental factors on the geographical distribution of such health problems” (p. xi). Environmental health questions are of critical importance to all northerners, and especially for Inuit and Athabaskans (Dene, Yukon First Nations and Metis). Indigenous Peoples have, after all, a close relationship to the natural environment; a sensitivity to changes in that environment, and because of traditional food systems and cultural practices a vulnerability to the sometimes subtle input of toxic substances. In northern Canada, great investments have been made in understanding natural and anthropogenic levels and exposures to heavy metals, radionuclides, and Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). In 2003, the second Canadian Arctic Contaminants Assessment Report, human health chapter, concluded that Inuit mothers had 6-12 times higher levels of toxaphene, oxychlordane, trans-nonachlor, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), mirex, and HCB (hexachlorobenzene), than Caucasians (Van Oostdam et al. 2003: 96). Similar results were noted for Inuit women’s exposure to mercury, lead and cadmium. Northern pathways for POPs, metals and radionuclides include air and water. Ultimately toxic substances bioaccumulate and are made bioavailable in traditional foods. Human health impacts from the mixture of biogeochemical transformations are of pressing concern for all northerners and so Essentials of Medical Geology is a book of obvious importance. Alarmingly high rates of contaminants in the North mirror changes in the environmental health of the planet. That is, there have been increasing inputs of contaminants into the North over the last 20-years from sources and use outside of the North. It is of critical importance to contextualize exposure to contaminants in traditional country food with knowledge of the benefits to the health of Inuit from gathering and consuming their traditional diets. It is also important to understand the natural processes that lead to high exposure levels. In Canada, the Northern Contaminants Program (NCP) has added a great deal to Inuit understanding about their exposure to environmental contaminants, pathways, and the effects of these to their health. However, the NCP, and internationally the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP 1998), focus on a limited aspect of environmental contaminants and our place within different Arctic ecosystems. While AMAP and CACAR reports have added greatly to our understanding of northern ecosystems, for those of us working on issues related to environmental impacts on public health, Essentials of Medical Geology is an important general text and reference. This book is equally useful to students and teachers of public health (the primary audience for this text), but will be useful for other researchers; as well as, for policy makers and government officials. Over 60 international authors and scientists have contributed to the 31 chapters of this book. The first eight chapters in the section “Environmental biology,” …