APHL supports governmental laboratories working to protect people from chemical, microbiological, and radiological exposures through the detection of contaminants — both in people and in the environment. Through technical assistance, training and guidance, APHL strengthens the analytical capability and testing capacity nationally.

Watch the What is environmental health testing? video from APHL on Vimeo.

Strengthening Environmental Health Laboratories

APHL works to strengthen and support environmental health laboratories by:

  • Serving as a liaison between environmental 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, opioid 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, convened APHL member labs and CDC to discuss laboratory efforts during the EVALI outbreak.

Environmental Health Laboratory Resources

Environmental Health Laboratory Communications Toolkit

APHL has created a set of resources for laboratory directors and communications officers to better advocate and promote the role of environmental health testing laboratories:

Webinars and Other Training Materials

Visit APHL's training search site to find upcoming environmental health-related trainings and events, archived webinars, toolkits and other resources.

What are environmental health laboratories?

Environmental Health Laboratories are governmental laboratories that conduct testing to protect human health and the environment and vary in name and capability. They are all environmental health laboratories—meaning they protect humans from environmental exposures—but they may be named "environmental," "environmental health" or "public health" laboratories, and they may test environmental samples—air, water, soil, surfaces, food and manufactured products—or human samples to determine if people have been exposed to an environmental contaminant. APHL provides a home base for these laboratories to focus on biomonitoring, environmental monitoring, emergency response, opioid biosurveillance and cannabis.