New environmental health facility dedicated

The Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene Environmental Health Division facility, dedicated June 18, is expected to help WSLH scientists expand their research in exploring the link between the environment and human health.

The $16.8 million facility on Madison’s east side also allows the WSLH to consolidate from its current four sites to two: the new east side facility and its current UW–Madison campus clinical laboratory facility, which will be remodeled.

“Our goal with this new environmental health facility was to design a state-of-the-art laboratory which would allow staff to interact more efficiently and productively,” says Ronald H. Laessig, WSLH director. “Historically we may have had staff working in similar disciplines, such as inorganic chemistry, operating in two different buildings. Now they can work side-by-side cooperatively and synergistically in a laboratory designed specifically for them.”

The 78,000-square-foot buiding includes enhanced laboratory facilities that will allow WSLH scientists to expand current research or perform analyses they’ve not been able to do before, says William Sonzogni, director of the Environmental Health Division.

“Now we have a special ‘clean room’ constructed of plastic with equipment that will allow our staff to detect trace amounts of metals, such as mercury, in water so they can better understand how these metals accumulate in the tissues of fish and animals and, eventually, in the humans who eat them,” Sonzogni says.

WSLH Environmental Health Division scientists participate in many cross-functional research projects with UW–Madison faculty in the School of Engineering, Department of Water Chemistry and UW Medical School departments. They also work with state agencies such as the Department of Natural Resources and Department of Health and Family Services, as well as national agencies such as OSHA and U.S. EPA.

The WSLH is the state’s public and environmental health laboratory. Founded in 1903, the WSLH conducts research and provides complete laboratory services for state agencies and local units of government in the areas of greatest importance to the public’s health, including air and water quality and contagious diseases.