The Wisconsin Newborn Screening Laboratory is featured in “THAT’S SICK! Headlines from the Public Health Laboratory Bench”, an online virtual open house for students interested in careers in public health laboratory science.

THAT’S SICK includes modules that let visitors explore the role of the laboratorian in areas of critical importance to the health of the public, including foodborne outbreaks, vectorborne diseases, infectious diseases, emergency preparedness, newborn screening, and environmental health.

The project was developed by members of the Emerging Leader Program, sponsored by the Association of Public Health Laboratories.

Scientists and staff from the WI State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) and WI Department of Natural Resources (DNR)  provided insight and updates about environmental monitoring and trends at a seminar held on March 3, 2015, at the WSLH’s Agriculture Drive facility in Madison.

The seminar was live-streamed on the web on March 3rd. Links to the archived webcasts are below.

 

Archived webcasts

You will need to access the archived webcasts using Internet Explorer. You will also need Microsoft Silverlight installed on your computer.

A.M. sessions webcast (NOTE: webcast starts at 04:41): https://slhstream2.ad.slh.wisc.edu/Mediasite/Play/f3b48a94a6744bd79267f5a2f2a78ce61d

P.M. sessions webcast (NOTE: webcast starts at 01:14): https://slhstream2.ad.slh.wisc.edu/Mediasite/Play/8bf5d354becd4b93916bd842a0b1afed1d

 

 

 

The mystery surrounding U.S. Senator Robert “Fightin’ Bob” La Follette’s extreme gastrointestinal illness during his May 30, 1908 filibuster is explored in the latest issue of Madison magazine.

Reporter Adam Schrager looks at the historical records and talks to experts to determine whether La Follette was intentionally “drugged” as the Wisconsin senator claimed in letters to family back home, or was he merely a victim of the impact of hot Washington D.C. temperatures on the eggnog he was drinking for sustenance during his 18-hours-plus talking filibuster.

WSLH Foodborne Disease Program Manager and Communicable Disease Supervisor Tim Monson weighs in on the food poisoning angle.

Madison magazine story link

According to estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII), Wisconsin’s overall incidence rate of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses fell slightly from 4.1 cases per 100 equivalent full-time workers in 2012 to 4.0 cases in 2013.

Nationally, the total injury and illness case rate per 100 full-time workers fell from 3.7 in 2012 to 3.5 in 2013. In surrounding Midwestern states (IA, IL, IN, MI, MN, NE, OH), Iowa had the highest total recordable case rate of 4.8 cases per 100 fulltime workers while Ohio had the lowest rate of 3.0.

SOII is the largest work injury data collection conducted nationwide. The Wisconsin SOII program collects data from a representative sample of 6,000 establishments in both the private and public sector.

 

 Key Findings

•  There were an estimated 85,200 total injuries and illnesses in Wisconsin workers, with 23,200 (27%) requiring time off due to injury. That number is slightly down from the estimated 23,600 cases requiring time off work in 2012.

• Private industry total incident rates remained unchanged at 4.0 cases per 100 fulltime workers, while local government rates dropped from 5.2 in 2012 to 4.9 in 2013, and state government rates increased from 3.2 to 3.6 cases.

• The leading cause of injury requiring days away from work was sprains, strains, and tears, at 38.2% of the 23,200 cases, a decrease from 40% of cases with time off work in 2012.

• The highest rate of workers with time off due to injury was among establishments with 50-249 employees at 5.0 cases per 100 full-time workers. Employers with 250-999 employees were second-highest, with a rate of 4.3 cases per 100 full-time workers.

• The median number of days away from work across all industries in Wisconsin was 7. This is lower than the national median of 8 days away from work.

Survey Background and Wisconsin’s BLS/OSH Program

The annual Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses has been conducted nationwide since 1973. The Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene’s (WSLH) Bureau of Labor Statistics/Occupational Safety and Health Statistics Unit has a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to conduct their Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses and Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in Wisconsin. The WSLH, a part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is the state’s public, environmental and occupational health laboratory.

 

Wisconsin occupational injury profile tables and graphics

As part of the Wisconsin Newborn Screening Program’s (NBS) continuous quality improvement efforts, the NBS collection card forms have been revised so the screening status of every Wisconsin baby can be reported.

The new NBS collection cards will be available on February 16.

If you would like to exchange your current cards for the revised ones, please contact Dr. Mei Baker at the Wisconsin Newborn Screening Laboratory (608-890-1796 or mwbaker@wisc.edu).

   DHS-WSLH letter

   Image of revised Newborn Screening Collection Card Form

   How to complete the Newborn Screening Collection Card Form (Updated 02/04/2015)

 

 

The old saying “you are what you eat” may be joined by a new variation – “you are what you breathe” – due to an innovative research collaboration between an engineer and a transplant surgeon.

Jamie Schauer, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene’s air chemistry program, has teamed up with UW-Madison transplant surgeon and Assistant Professor Joshua Mezrich to investigate how pollution impacts patients after a lung transplant.

Their work is an example of how Schauer believes environmental engineers and medical professionals can work together to better understand possible links between air pollution and health problems in people.

Schauer and Mezrich’s recent work was profiled by the UW-Madison College of Engineering.

They also just received a $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue their research.

The analysis of air samples for this research is performed at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene.

Flu in schoolchildren, pharmaceuticals in Lake Michigan, and air pollution darkening the white marble of the Taj Mahal. While these might seem like completely random topics they all have something in common – Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) scientists and testing technology.

As part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, research is one of the core parts of the WSLH’s mission. Recently three research projects in which WSLH scientists have collaborated received media attention.

 

ORCHARDS school flu study

 

This CDC-funded University of Wisconsin-Madison study focuses on schoolchildren in the Oregon, WI school district and combines rapid testing at a UW clinic lab, confirmatory PCR testing at the WI State Laboratory of Hygiene Communicable Disease Division, and epidemiology with the goal of better understanding how the flu and other respiratory viruses can spread amongst children and hopefully find trends that could minimize or prevent school outbreaks.

The WSLH also performed testing last year using the rapid flu testing platform being utilized in the study to verify it would work in this context.

WKOW-TV story

Wisconsin State Journal story

 

Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products in Lake Michigan

 

WSLH Environmental Health Division scientists collaborated with University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee researchers to measure levels of drugs and personal care products in Lake Michigan off the Milwaukee shoreline. It has long been assumed that the size and water volume of the Great Lakes would dilute these materials, but this research calls that into doubt.

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel story on newest phase of this research

Interview from 2013 with WSLH Research Scientist Dr. Curt Hedman about the findings of the first phase of the research

 

Carbon Soot and the Taj Mahal

 

The beautiful white marble of the Taj Mahal in Agra, India has been getting dirtier over the last few decades. Researchers in India and at Georgia Tech and the WSLH Environmental Health Division have determined that carbon soot from air pollution is to blame. The next step is to determine where the contamination is coming from and what to do about it.

The answers aren’t just important for one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, but also for the many people living in the area since these types of contaminants can also cause negative health effects.

International Business Times story

Wisconsin State Journal 2012 story about the research

A poster presentation looking at whether it’s better for women served by public health laboratories like the WSLH to have molecular-based HPV testing as their primary cervical cancer screening method vs. using a Pap test in combination with an HPV test won the Cytotechnologist Scientific Presentation Award at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Cytopathology last month.

WSLH Cytology Laboratory Manager Erin McCarthy (pictured at left) was lead author on “Molecular Testing and Cervical Screening: Will One Test Fit All?”.  Changhong Ye, instructional program manager in the Cytotechnology Certificate program, and WSLH Medical Director Dr. Dan Kurtycz were co-authors.

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the primary cause of nearly all cervical cancers. Nationally, there is an increasing emphasis on using molecular HPV testing as the first-line test for cervical cancer screening. But because the women the WSLH Cytology Laboratory serves tend to be higher-risk for cervical cancer and also medically underserved, McCarthy and her colleagues wanted to know if this change in testing algorithms would be helpful or harmful.

Their research found that nearly 56% of the women determined to have high-grade cervical lesions by Pap tests performed at the WSLH ended up testing negative by molecular testing for the two most common forms of HPV responsible for cervical cancer. If only the molecular HPV tests had been used for these women, their pre-cancerous lesions would have been missed at this stage of testing.

Erin and her co-authors call into question the move toward molecular HPV testing for everyone and note that as cervical cancer screening practices evolve, it will be important to consider whether different populations of women may need different testing algorithms.

“Erin deserves an immense amount of credit for this paper,” said Dr. Kurtycz. “We are all very proud of her work in this area of public health.”

The WSLH is posting Ebola Virus Information for Lab Professionals.