| 118 |
256.0 |
Index |
6.2.8 |
6.0 |
EOH |
Environmental & Occupational Health |
18.0 |
EM |
Environmental Monitoring |
The systematic collection and continuous or frequent standardized measurement and observation of: environmental specimens (air, water, land/soil, and plants) analyzing the presence of an indicator, exposure, or response (warning and control), including monitoring the environment for vectors of disease to give information about the environment to assess past and current status and predict future trends |
M273 |
State public health laboratory provides or assures testing for hazardous waste |
Disasters and other events can cause the release of substances that are the by-product or waste of industrial processes into the environment. These substances are often toxic and hazardous to human health. It is important that the state laboratory has the capability to test for hazardous substances (or can assure that this capability exists). This capability is significant in characterizing the area contaminated by the release and is also essential to the clean-up and site remediation/restoration. |
APHL CLSS |
Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), Comprehensive Laboratory Services Survey (CLSS) |
2012, 2014, & 2016 |
The state public health laboratory testing “provide or assure” standard is based on national consensus expert opinion and is recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and is reflected in the Healthy People 2020 goals concerning access to comprehensive public health and environmental health laboratory testing. This standard requires the state public health authority, through its laboratory, engage in the testing and reporting process – either by directly performing the tests or by assuring that alternative labs perform the tests adequately. This standard is designed to ensure that laboratory testing, interpretation, and reporting is guided by specialized public health knowledge and expertise found within the state public health agency, and that timely, effective public health responses and protective actions occur based on test results. States that provide testing through another type of laboratory, with no assurance role performed by the public health laboratory, do not meet this standard. (see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2846798/). Selected responses from the 2016 survey have been corrected for North Carolina and therefore no longer correspond to the originally published survey results. |