Laboratory Investigations for Healthier Washington Workplaces

Mission

The EH Lab analyzes compressed air samples for Washington state fire departments.
  • Provide analytical and consulting services to employers and labor through support to industrial hygiene and occupational medicine professionals in Washington state. Our expertise is in chemical hazard identification, monitoring, and analysis.
  • Support training of industrial hygiene and occupational medicine professionals in chemical hazard assessment.
  • Research and develop new analytical and sampling methodologies for workplace monitoring.

Overview

The Environmental Health Laboratory (EHL)

EHL, with support from the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, provides industrial hygiene no-cost consultations, analytical services, and sample analyses to labor organizations, employers, and workers in Washington State. We also provide analytical support for the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences Field Research and Consultation Group and exposure sciences degree program.

Typical services include analyses of breathing air from compressed air tanks and metals, hexavalent chromium, and crystalline airborne silica in workplace environmental samples.

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EHL is accredited for breathing air, metals, hexavalent chromium, and crystalline airborne silica analyses through the AIHA Laboratory Accreditation Programs, LLC.
Certificate of Accreditation (Lab ID: 101871)

 

 

The Trace Organics Analysis Center (TOAC)

TOAC is supported by research grants and income from fee-for-service analyses.

Services include a wide range of analytical chemical analyses and method development for specific analytical needs. TOAC also provides consultation services on topics such as sampling, choice of analytical technique, and identifying possible chemical candidates for assessment.

History

The Environmental Health Laboratory began in the 1940s as the Environmental Research Lab within the Preventive Medicine division of the UW School of Medicine. Since that time, the Preventive Medicine division has become the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, and the Environmental Research Lab has grown into the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences. The EHL's laboratory-based services, teaching and research mission has continued to the present day.

The DEOHS Environmental Health Laboratory was renovated and modernized in 2021 with a generous gift from Dr. Gilbert S. Omenn and his wife, Martha A. Darling. The renovations include updated spaces for existing molecular toxicology, vivarium, cell culture, microbiology and field research labs and a new biosafety level 2 lab along with new trace metals, mass spectrometry and gas calibration labs. Dr. Omenn is former dean of the UW School of Public Health and former DEOHS chair.

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