Bayesian Approach for Managing Microbial Risks from Wastewater Reuse for Irrigation

• Activity Number: 625 - Environmental Epidemiology and Spatial Statistics
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 3, 2017 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics in Epidemiology
• Author(s): Ram Kafle*
• Companies: Sam Houston State University
• Keywords: Microbial Risks ; QMRA ; Bayesian ; Disease ; Pathogens

Abstract

Direct and indirect reuse of wastewater is increasing recently because of limited clean water supply. The reuse of such untreated or minimally treated wastewater present a serious public health problems. The current wastewater reuse guidelines to minimize the risk of population illness are based on Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) model. In this study, we develop the Bayesian approach to QMRA model incorporating ethnographic data and pathogen measurement to assess the impact of riverbank filtration system on consumer health burdens for different pathogens infections resulting from indirect wastewater reuse with lettuce irrigation. The data for this study are collected from Bolivia. In this presentation, we also talk about the implementation of Bayesian Network to QMRA to determine the interventions that can minimize the disease burden associated with the reuse of wastewater.