Michigan State University is getting $14 million to study how dioxins affect human health.
MSU researchers will look for ways to remove dioxins from the environment and reach out to communities burdened with the toxic pollutants.
Dioxin contamination has been a problem in parts of Michigan, including along the Tittabawassee and Kalamazoo Rivers.
Norbert Kaminski is heading up the multi-disciplinary study. He notes that dioxins have been linked to illnesses like cancer.
“We really don’t know very much about the sensitivity and susceptibility of people,” says Kaminski, “Especially to some of these diseases and biological endpoints that we’ve studied in animal models.”
“A second project as part of this program is going to study how these compounds interact with soils and clay, again very relevant to some of the contamination sites in Michigan,” says Kaminski.
Kaminski expects this federal grant will serve as a jumping off point for research that will take many years.
