ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
Confronting Workforce Challenges in Environmental Health
By Nicholas Arguelles, associate specialist, Environmental Health and Jennifer Liebreich, MPH, senior program manager, Environmental Health
Nationwide, environmental public health laboratories face a workforce crisis: fewer applicants are entering the field, student-loan burdens weigh heavily on skilled professionals and government laboratory salaries struggle to keep pace with other sectors. These pressures erode institutional knowledge and make it difficult to recruit and retain staff. Recognizing these challenges, APHL’ s Environmental Health Committee( EHC) prioritized workforce development during the past year, and its Chemical Threat Collaborative Workgroup( CTCWG) developed resources to assist the chemical threat preparedness workforce within the Laboratory Response Network for Chemical Threats( LRN-C) programs in public health laboratories.
A History of Collaboration
The CTCWG is rooted in a decades-old effort by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention( CDC) to bolster workforce training. APHL adapted that original concept into the Chemical Threat Special Interest Group in 2008, which evolved into a collaborative workgroup when the CTCWG was formally chartered. In 2021, it became a topical workgroup of the EHC, whose priority is maximizing the value of the LRN-C, and during all iterations, its membership consisted of public health laboratory staff focused on LRN-C outreach efforts. The CTCWG continues to collaborate across APHL to innovate and deliver hands-on tools to support and strengthen the chemical threat workforce.
Innovative Resource Development
This year, the CTCWG introduced three flagship tools designed to guide, equip and connect CT Coordinators from their first day of work through ongoing peer collaborations. Day One in the LRN-C is an onboarding document that offers a two-week roadmap for newly hired CT coordinators. It weaves together introductions to laboratory colleagues, essential quality system requirements, CT-specific training milestones and strategies for engaging external partners, such as emergency responders and regulatory agencies, all in a single, easyto-follow guide. By integrating training and outreach in one document, it directly advances the CTCWG’ s mission to provide current, comprehensive chemical threat preparedness practices.
To ensure that newly hired staff can find helpful resources, CTCWG rolled out a magnet to be placed prominently in all LRN-C laboratories. The four-inch circle magnet features a QR code linking to APHL’ s LRN-C emergency response resource page. From their mobile phones, staff can instantly access the onboarding guide, key standard operating procedures, quick-reference materials and contact lists for regional and national CT experts. The magnet’ s convenience allows quick, direct access to resources for new hires, and encourages frequent resource utilization by existing staff in the laboratory.
A scannable magnet appears on equipment in the Massachusetts laboratory. Photo: APHL.
Acknowledging the risk of knowledge loss during staff turnover, APHL compiled the Knowledge Retention Toolkit. The toolkit contains both general and positionspecific questions, meant to capture the knowledge gained by employees through their hands-on experience and practice in the field.
A peer-to-peer exchange visit between Massachusetts and Wisconsin. Photo: APHL.
This year the toolkit gained a dedicated CT Coordinator tab. This new section provides onboarding questionnaires tailored to CT workflows, SOP checklists, documentation templates and best practice guidance for capturing institutional knowledge before retirements or transfers. By standardizing how laboratories preserve critical processes and insights, it helps build a sustainable knowledge infrastructure that aligns with broader outreach and preparedness goals.
Launch of the Chemical Threat Peer-to-Peer Exchange Program
Building upon many years of success by APHL’ s Biosafety Peer Network, the CTCWG developed a similarly modeled chemical threat peer exchange program. Utilizing application responses, CT coordinators from LRN-C laboratories were matched, based on complementary strengths and growth areas. In spring 2025, 16 LRN-C laboratories participated in site visits. Peer exchanges enable LRN-C scientists to share best practices for method development, refine outreach strategies and strengthen response approaches. Beyond boosting technical readiness, the program fosters lasting professional relationships that strengthen the network itself and the nation’ s preparedness overall. continued on page 33
24 LAB MATTERS Fall 2025 PublicHealthLabs @ APHL. org
APHL. org