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Environmental Health Overview

Environmental health laboratories are often the first to identify hazardous contaminants in people and the environment. APHL works to strengthen their capability and capacity to detect and respond to environmental threats and inform public health practice and policy.

Questions?

Contact the Environmental Health team: [email protected]

WHAT APHL DOES

Supporting a Robust Laboratory System to Inform Public Health Practice

APHL supports laboratories that serve the public’s health by protecting people from chemical, microbiological and radiological exposures through the detection of contaminants—both in people and in the environment. Through technical assistance, training, guidance and integration with public health partners, APHL strengthens the analytical capability and testing capacity nationally.

APHL works to strengthen and support environmental health laboratories by:

  • Serving as a liaison between environmental health laboratories, CDC and other partners.
  • Providing a unified voice at the national level, through comments on regulations, letters and educational materials.
  • Convening committees, taskforces and workgroups on topics such as biomonitoring, overdose biosurveillance and wastewater surveillance.
  • Bringing an environmental health presence to the APHL Annual Conference by developing sessions and posters on topics such as cannabis testing, environmental metagenomics and the need for robust chemical testing.
  • Identifying and developing training resources, including webinars and leadership development opportunities.
  • Coordinating responses to emergencies; for example, we convened APHL member laboratories and CDC to discuss laboratory efforts during the EVALI outbreak.
  • Promoting the capabilities of member laboratories and integrating them into the public health system

WHAT OUR MEMBER LABORATORIES DO

Reducing Our Exposure to Hazards

Environmental health laboratories are governmental laboratories that conduct testing to protect human health and the environment by identifying microbes, pollutants and toxins, and providing critical information to reduce harms, improve health and save lives.

These laboratories vary in name and capability. They may be called "environmental," "environmental health" or "public health" laboratories, and they may test environmental samples—air, water, soil, surfaces, plants, animals and manufactured products—or human samples to determine if people have been exposed to environmental hazards.

Areas of Work

Environmental Monitoring

Testing of environmental media such as water, air, soil, surfaces and manufactured products helps identify contaminants that could harm the environment or the public, such as PFAS, lead, radon and specifics bacteria and viruses.

Environmental Monitoring
Human Biomonitoring

Biomonitoring provides a snapshot of the amount of specific chemicals in a person's body at a given time. When samples are collected broadly and systematically, biomonitoring data can help identify and track exposure trends.

Learn More About Biomonitoring
Environmental Emergencies

When environmental emergencies arise—chemical spills, floods, other natural disasters, intentional foodborne outbreaks or contaminated consumer products—laboratories help identify the contaminants and help assess the damages. They are an essential part of established response networks, which can come together quickly to address a crisis.

Learn More About Responding to Emergencies
Drugs and Overdose

Public health laboratories play an active role in responding to the overdose epidemic through overdose biosurveillance, which identifies substances implicated in non-fatal overdoses and can help inform prevention strategies.  Laboratory testing related to drugs and overdoses is an expanding field and can be conducted on the products themselves or on clinical samples, from pre-sale regulation of legal drugs—such as cannabis—to identification of harmful additives in consumable products—such as electronic cigarettes or vapes.

Learn More About Overdose Biosurveillance
What APHL Offers

Related Resources

We support the work of environmental health laboratories with communications, trainings, communities of practice and more.

Explore more environmental health resources and trainings