Past Meetings

IAVCEI General Assembly

Reykjavik, Iceland, August 18-22 2008

A volcanic health session was held at the IAVCEI General Assembly:

Session 4-d: Responding to volcanic health hazards

Friday 22 August from 13.00

Conveners:
P. Baxter, Institute of Public Health, University of Cambridge, UK,
C. Horwell, Institute of Hazard and Risk Research, University of Durham, UK

Responding to volcanic health hazards needs to be part of integrated contingency planning for human and natural disasters in those countries with active volcanoes. Local crises may arise in repose periods as well as during eruptions, and multi-disciplinary methodologies need to be developed to perform rapid health risk assessments for a wide range of volcanic phenomena. The session will focus on the following topics for presentation of case-studies related to human and animal health.

Programme

IVHHN's 4th Workshop

Cities on Volcanoes 5

Shimabara, Japan, November 2007

IVHHN held its 4th workshop at Cities on Volcanoes 5 conference, Japan in November 2007. Please see www.citiesonvolcanoes5.com for full details.

During the workshop, we focussed on three topical issues:
1) exposure to volcanic soil gases and gassing accidents.
2) grain size analysis of volcanic ash for rapid health assessment
3) psychological issues of evacuation.

Agenda:

At the conference, we also hosted a session on the Health Hazards of Coexisting with Active Volcanoes. The timetable for the session was as follows:

Oral Session 1
Thursday 22 November

Oral Session 2
Friday 23 November

Posters
(Thursday pm)

For a full overview of the meeting please see our 2008 News Archive page.

IUGG General Assembly

Perugia, Italy, 2-13 July 2007

A symposium (VS020) was held at IUGG 2007 on: Volcanic health hazard assessment: focus on multidisciplinary collaboration and integration. The convenors of the symposium were Claire Horwell (University of Cambridge, UK) and Peter Baxter (University of Cambridge, UK). For more information please see: www.iugg2007perugia.it.

Summary: The assessment of the health hazard of volcanic emissions is becoming standard procedure at the onset of eruptions. Since the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980, several volcanoes (e.g. Sakurajima, Japan and the Soufriere Hills, Montserrat) have had detailed studies carried out on the potential health hazard posed by inhaling volcanic ash and gas. Although it is now accepted that volcanic emissions can cause acute health problems such as asthma and bronchitis, we are still unsure as to whether chronic diseases, such as silicosis, can be triggered following long durations of exposure. The development of techniques for the rapid assessment of volcanic emissions for health-related parameters, such as grain size and composition analysis, is also a current priority. Much of what we know about the health hazard of volcanic emissions is drawn from comparison with other disciplines or adaptation of techniques used to assess the health hazard of other airborne pollutants such as anthropogenic aerosols and natural dusts. As well as mineralogical and geochemical analyses, health hazard assessment primarily relies on collaboration with the medical, toxicological and epidemiological communities. We invite contributions on health hazard assessment of volcanic emissions, with particular interest in presentations which incorporate novel techniques or information drawn from parallel disciplines interested in the assessment of health hazard of airborne particulate, gases and aerosols.

Frontiers in Mineral Sciences 2007

University of Cambridge, UK, 26-28 June 2007

A poster session on "Respirable natural dusts: Sources, characterisation and
health effects" was held at this conference. The convenors were Claire Horwell (University of Cambridge, UK), Ben Williamson (Natural History Museum, London, UK) and Bob Finkelman (University of Texas, US). The second circular for the conference can be found at www.minersoc.org.

Summary: Inhalation into the lungs of small crystalline particles, over long periods of time or at high levels, can cause severe health effects. The mechanisms of toxicity are complex and the causes of differences in toxicity among different dusts and even within the same source of dust are poorly understood. We invite presentations on all aspects of the mineralogical, geochemical, toxicological and medical assessment of the toxicity of natural dusts.

IVHHN's 3rd Annual Workshop

Held at Cities on Volcanoes 4 conference in Quito, Ecuador

January 23-27 2006.

Symposium VII Volcanoes and Health speakers and abstract titles

Symposium II, Ash and Aerosols talks of relevance:

IVHHN's 2nd Annual Workshop

Held at the IAVCEI GENERAL ASSEMBLY, Pucon, Chile

14-19 November 2004

Talks relevant to IVHHN

Posters relevant to IVHHN