2 President ’ s Message 3 Chief Executive Officer ’ s Message

Fall / Winter 2021 Issue 4

Environmental Health

10 Climate Change and California Wildfires : A Look at Environmental Exposures

11 Public Health Laboratories Provide Essential Algal Toxin Testing

From the Bench 12 Utility Laboratories and Public Health

Food Safety 14 Building Shellfish Testing Capabilities to Keep Alaskans Safe

Global Health 15 Supporting Antigen-Detecting Rapid Diagnostic Testing Evaluation in Kenya

16 Global Laboratory Leadership Programme Launches Learning Package

Industry Matters

18 Developing Advanced Molecular Analysis for SARS-CoV-2 and Other Pathogens in Wastewater

19 The Benefits of a Comprehensive , Open Platform qPCR Kit to Detect CREs

Infectious Diseases 21 Win-Win : APHL Launches Genomic

Data Specialist Program

Informatics 22 The Urgent Need for ETOR

23 APHL Becomes Accredited Health Information Service Provider

Newborn Screening & Genetics

24 Newborn Screening Programs Aim to Reduce Use of Paper and Plastics During the Pandemic and Beyond

25 Building Workforce and Knowledge Capacity Within Newborn Screening

Public Health Preparedness & Response 26 Advancing Capabilities to Detect Genetic Engineering and Antimicrobial Resistance in Biological Threat Agents

27 Staying Ahead of Threats : The Role of Next Generation Sequencing Technology

Quality Systems & Analytics

28 COOP , Surge and ICS : Pacific Rim Consortium Conducts Summer Tabletop Exercise Series

Membership 30 Oregon Laboratory & Environmental Assessment Division : A Leader in Protecting Air and Water Quality

Fellows

32 New Fellowship Classes Begin , Recruiting for Expanded 2022 Programs

It ’ s Time

The Role of Public Health Laboratories on Climate Change

Inside :

14 Building Shellfish Testing Capabilities to Keep Alaskans Safe

22 APHL Launches Health Information Service Provider

24 Building Workforce and Knowledge Capacity Within Newborn Screening

ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC HEALTH LABORATORIES

4 It ’ s Time : The Role of Public Health Laboratories on Climate Change

On August 5 , the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its Sixth Assessment Report , where it stated that “ It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere , ocean and land .” Public health laboratories , particularly environmental health professionals , have been noticing the effects of climate change in their daily work for quite some time . And it may be up to public health laboratories to help clarify its effects for state and federal decision makers .

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Phone : 240.485.2745 Fax : 240.485.2700 E-mail : info @ aphl . org Web : www . aphl . org

The Association of Public Health Laboratories ( APHL ) works to strengthen laboratory systems serving the public ’ s health in the US and globally . APHL ’ s member laboratories protect the public ’ s health by monitoring and detecting infectious and foodborne diseases , environmental contaminants , terrorist agents , genetic disorders in newborns and other diverse health threats .

APHL LAB MATTERS STAFF

Gynene Sullivan , MA , editor Karen Klinedinst , art director David Fouse , advisor

To submit an article for consideration , contact Gynene Sullivan , editor , at gynene . sullivan @ aphl . org .

APHL 2021-2022 BOARD OF DIRECTORS Denise Toney , PhD , HCLD ( ABB ), president Daphne Ware , PhD , president-elect Godfred Masinde , PhD , MBA , HCLD ( ABB ), secretary-treasurer Michael Pentella PhD , D ( ABMM ), member-at-large Scott Shone , PhD , HCLD ( ABB ), member-at-large Timothy Southern , PhD , member-at-large

Sally Flowers , PhD , associate institutional member representative

Sanjib Bhattacharyya , PhD , local institutional member representative

Megan Crumpler , PhD , local institutional member representative

Grace Kubin , PhD , past president Scott Becker , MS , ex officio , chief executive officer , APHL