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WI State Laboratory of Hygiene Receives $750,000 FDA Food Safety Grant

MADISON – The Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH), the state’s public and environmental health laboratory and a part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is one of three laboratories nationally to receive a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to enhance food screening capabilities and detect radioactive material in food, either from accidental or deliberate contamination. The FDA announced the grant award earlier this week (FDA news release).

The three-year, $250,000/year grant provides funding for supplies, personnel, minor facility upgrades and training. Other grant recipients include the Texas Department of State Health Services Laboratory and the New York Health Research/New York Department of Health. These labs, along with the WSLH, are members of the national Food Emergency Response Network (FERN). The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) laboratory is also a FERN member.

The WSLH is the state’s primary emergency response laboratory and is a member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) national Laboratory Response Network for biological and chemical terrorism and emergency response. According to WSLH Director Charles Brokopp, Dr. P.H., receiving this grant and joining FERN is a logical expansion of the WSLH’s emergency response capabilities.

“We work collaboratively with DATCP and other state agencies, and while the DATCP laboratory has primary responsibility for food testing in the state, they don’t have a radiochemistry laboratory and we do,” explains Brokopp. “By expanding the State Lab of Hygiene’s capability to test for radioactive contamination in food, we are enhancing Wisconsin’s ability to protect the people, environment and economy of our state.”

Attached to the University of Wisconsin-Madison since its founding in 1903, the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene provides public, environmental and occupational health laboratory expertise to a wide variety of national, state and local partners. As the state's public, environmental and occupational health laboratory, we help maintain the public health of all Wisconsin's citizens, safeguard the state's environment and educate state residents on public health issues. Many of our staff are also UW-Madison faculty members.

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Posted By: Jan Klawitter, WSLH Public Affairs and Training Manager
Date: November 21, 2007

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