No abstract

Either an overabundance or a deficiency of trace metals in the food chain can ultimately affect adversely the health of livestock and man. Increasing interest in the United States in the distribution of metals in the environment and in metal pollutants has led to widespread interdisciplinary research sponsored by governmental, private and academic groups concerning the availability of trace elements for absorption by plants and animals, and the effects of trace elements throughout the food chain. The state of the art and the needs for research are reviewed by interdisciplinary committees in the National Academy of Sciences and in many government agencies. Research is encouraged through contracts and grants awarded by federal and state agencies and the National Science Foundation to universities for studies of specific metals, specific diseases and correlations between metals and health in specific geographic areas. Effects on the environment of coal-fired power plants, the mining and processing of metals, asbestos, and phosphate, and the disposal of industrial and nuclear wastes have also received much attention in the past few years.

Recent inquiries about the activities of the U.S. National Committee for Geochemistry and its functions have resulted in an attempt toward improved dissemination of information to geochemists and others interested in the field. It is the committee's intent to report regularly in this and perhaps other appropriate organs on its meetings and other activities of interest, including those of its separately supported Subcommittee on the Geochemical Environment in Relation to Health and Disease, and activities of its ad hoc panels, such as the Panel on Orientations for Geochemistry.