Dear Stuart,

I have been reading your articles for some considerable time, and although on the other side of the Globe, appreciate many of them, and find them relevant.

I trained in Geography at the Australian National University during the 1960's. Our Professor was A.T.A. Learmonth, regarded then as one of the 2 founders of the displine called Medical Geography. I spent a year directly on the subject with Prof Learmonth - so much of what you said in this latest article rang bells for me.

The role of the geographer is vital in exploring disease clusters. Someone did an atlas of cancer in the U.K. in the late 50's. When they saw it all mapped out, they realised there was a cluster of groin cancer in men in Birmingham. Further research demonstrated that the high incidence came from men employed in the knife making industry. In the end, they traced it back to the use of one particular tool - It was changed and in due course the incidence of this disease subsided to National levels.

Another very young University researcher in NSW pursued an odd outbreak of Hepatitis B in 1953. When all the facts were studied it appeared that the disease had originated in that town and spread out along the train lines throughout NSW as people returned home fromChristmas holidays in that particular region. Eventually it was traced back to the lakes behind Woollongong. The lakes were decontaminated and in due course the outbreak was brought under control. Without his work many more people would have been infected with this debillitating illness.

I often think that all illnesses should be mapped - it gives a very immediate picture of clusters and can often take the trained geographers's eyestraight to the point of origination or to common factors / vectors.

Keep up the good work,

Helen South
Lane Realty, Tamborine Mountain,
Queensland, Australia.
http://www.lanerealty.com.au/

The information provided in this column is written by Stuart Lieberman,a practicing environmental attorney, and is for general information purposes only. It is not legal advice and should not be used in place of legal advice.

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