Contact: Jade Mitchell: jade@msu.edu
"Our group performs human health risk analysis to address risks associated with chemical and microbial stressors in water environments. Our goal is to increase the utility of risk analysis for decision making and effective management of legacy and emerging contaminants. We develop integrated models to link source contamination, transport, persistence, exposure and health effects across different water systems. This work supports the development of environmental policies andengineering controls."
Projects
Water Accessibility, Training Enhancement and Research in Africa Network: The WATER Africa Network
The goal of this project is to support the development of an initial stage partnership between investigators at Michigan State University, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and Université Cheikh Anta Diop (Sénégal) under the thematic area of Water, Energy and Environment. This international collaboration represents the integration of interdisciplinary science for the purpose of understanding and improving the impacts of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) on reducing human health risks through Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA). Funding supports three primary activities that will increase institutional capacity at the partner institutions through sustainable and productive research collaboration- water testing, risk modeling, training and outreach.
Right Sizing Tomorrow's Water Systems for Efficiency, Sustainability, and Public Health
In this multidisciplinary, multi-institutional project water sampling data taken from a net-zero residential building were analyzed in order to determine risks associated with opportunistic pathogens in drinking water systems based on chemical and microbial analysis; building design and drivers of water conservation.
Funded by: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Global Water Pathogens Project
In this project, Mitchell and her research team were responsible for leading a systematic review, data analysis and evaluation of pathogen persistence data in different types of water media (drinking water, surface water, wastewater, etc.). The overall goal was to provide an updated review of the efficacy of sanitation technologies and a compendium of waterborne pathogen information and quantitative data to support risk assessment.
