The Geochemistry of Disease: a Reawakening of a Multidisciplinary Approach to Disease Prevention

During recent years there has been developing among geochemists ancl among students of physiology and medi cine, an increasing interest in trace elements and the roles they play in biological systems. In a recent National Academy of Science publication on "Geochem istry and the Environment", several distinguished scholars addressed themselves to the "Relation of Selected Trace Elements to Health and Disease." In an overview statement, certain pertinent questions were raised: where and under what conditions does the geochemical environment relate to health and disease? How and under what conditions are chemical data on rocks and waters related to soils? Soil data to plants, plant data to subhuman animals, and animal data to human health and disease? (Hopps, 1974)