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Harding Receives National Toxicology Award from Peers

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) Toxicology Supervisor Patrick Harding received the National Safety Council’s Committee on Alcohol and Other Drugs’ 2007 Robert F. Borkenstein Award at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences 59th Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas.

The award, sponsored by the Highway Traffic Safety Division of the National Safety Council, recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions through a lifetime of service consistent with the ideals and achievements of Dr. Robert Frank Borkenstein, the inventor of the breathalyzer. These contributions are in the area of alcohol/drugs in relation to traffic and transportation safety.

Award nominees must, through a minimum tenure of 25 years of active service in the field of alcohol/drugs and traffic safety, have contributed to that field to a degree that their achievements have been nationally recognized. A minimum of 10 years of active and productive involvement as a volunteer with the National Safety Council must be shown.

In 2005, Harding received the Kurt M. Dubowski Award from the International Association for Chemical Testing. The Borkenstein and Dubowski awards are considered among the most prestigious awards in the forensic toxicology field.

The WSLH forensic toxicology laboratory Harding oversees performs 100% of Operating While Intoxicated (OWI) drug testing and 60% of OWI blood alcohol testing in the state. Harding and other WSLH toxicologists also testify in court and provide extensive state, national and international training and education to law enforcement officers, prosecutors and judges on the effects of drugs and alcohol on drivers.

Harding is also an instructor at the Robert F. Borkenstein Course on Alcohol, Drugs and Highway Safety: Testing, Research and Litigation, given semi-annually at Indiana University. He has co-authored three papers on breath alcohol testing for the Journal of Forensic Sciences and authored a breath alcohol testing chapter in Medicolegal Aspects of Alcohol as well as a special topic brochure for American Prosecutors Research Institute entitled Alcohol Toxicology for Prosecutors.

Attached to the University of Wisconsin-Madison since its founding in 1903, the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene is the state’s public, environmental and occupational health laboratory.

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Posted By: Jan Klawitter, WSLH Public Affairs

Date: March 30, 2007

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