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Environmental Laboratory Activities

    Lab Technician

      The Environmental Laboratory at NCEH/ATSDR is internationally recognized for its expertise in biomonitoring. It participates in international research studies, provides training and technical assistance to laboratories worldwide, and maintains several quality assurance sample programs. The Laboratory has several ongoing programs with international focus and/or availability:

      • Micronutrient-related Laboratory and Field Activities

        In 2000, NCEH established a Global Micronutrient Laboratory that collaborates with CDC colleagues in efforts to reduce the worldwide burden of micronutrient deficiencies, particularly in countries such as Argentina, Malawi, Nicaragua, Oman, Ukraine, and Zambia. The laboratory provides technical assistance on questions about laboratory analysis, field logistics, and training in preparation for national nutrition surveys. The laboratory also provides external quality assurance services of measurements of various nutritional indicators such as urinary iodine, serum vitamin A, and serum B vitamins.
      • Newborn Screening Quality Assurance Program

        Within 48 hours of a child's birth, a sample of blood is obtained from a "heel stick," and the blood is analyzed for treatable diseases, including phenylketonuria, sickle cell disease, and hypothyroidism. More than 98% of all children born in the United States are tested for these disorders. The sample, called a "blood spot," is tested at a state public health or other participating laboratory. CDC's Environmental Health Laboratory evaluates the performance of all participating laboratories (73 domestic and one or more laboratories in 53 other nations), ensuring that they analyze the blood spots correctly and providing technical assistance to resolve any diagnostic problems.
      • EQUIP: Ensuring the Quality of Urinary Iodine Procedure

        In coordination with the Global Micronutrient Laboratory a program known as EQUIP (Ensuring the Quality of Iodine Procedures) was established as a standardization program designed to provide urinary iodine laboratories with an independent assessment of their analytical performance. Currently, four U.S. and 30 international laboratories participate in the EQUIP program. The international laboratories are from Australia; Austria; Belgium; Bulgaria; Cameroon; China; Guatemala; India; Indonesia; Ireland; Italy; Japan; Kazakhstan; Macedonia; Mongolia; New Zealand; Papua, New Guinea; Peru; the Philippines; Russia; South Africa; Switzerland; Tanzania; Thailand; Ukraine; United States; Uzbekistan; Venezuela; Yugoslavia; and Zimbabwe.
      • Lipid Standardization Program (LSP)/Cholesterol Reference Method Laboratory Network (CRMLN)

        CDC's Environmental Health Laboratory helps to ensure the quality of about 35 million cholesterol measurements made in the United States alone each year. With accurate measurements, doctors can diagnose and properly treat people with high cholesterol levels, thus reducing illness and death associated with this disease. Additionally, the laboratory standardizes lipid measurements for 50 domestic and 40 international laboratories that together are involved in about 100 ongoing epidemiologic studies or clinical trials investigating risk factors for cardiovascular disease. By serving as the accuracy base for lipids and lipoproteins, CDC's Environmental Health Laboratory ensures the compatibility of results obtained from these investigations.
      • Diabetes Autoantibody Standardization Program (DASP)

        Working with the Immunology of Diabetes Society, in 2000 CDC's Environmental Health Laboratory established the Diabetes Autoantibody Standardization Program (DASP) to improve autoantibody measurements worldwide. Currently, 47 key laboratories from 17 countries participate in DASP.
      • Transdiscinplinary Tobacco Use Research Centers (TTURC) —International Tobacco Consortium

        This project is designed to assess the influence of policies that regulate product characteristics on 1) cigarette design, 2) smoke chemistries, 3) smokers’ behaviors and perceptions, and 4) biomarkers of exposure. We propose to establish and maintain a repository of cigarette packs from the seven ITC countries and other countries of interest.
      • Analysis of popular brand cigarettes from several countries before and after changes in regulation - TTURC Collaboration

        To accurately identify how regulation affects cigarette design, careful sampling of cigarettes from countries before and after regulation needs to be performed. In collaboration with our Trans-disciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center (TTURC) partners at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY, we will study cigarettes from countries facing near-term tobacco regulation and which current regulation has achieved differences in cigarette design. Currently, six countries have been identified: Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. Additional samples will be received from the Czech Republic and Greece as these become available.

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