In addition to continued COVID-19 virus testing in the Communicable Disease Division, the WSLH response to the pandemic has expanded to include surveillance for the virus in wastewater as well as helping the state and local communities decontaminate PPE.

 

Wastewater Surveillance

In late May, a team of WSLH Environmental Health Division researchers – Jocelyn Hemming, Dagmara Antkiewicz, Kayley Janssen and Martin Shafer- were successful in obtaining a $1.25 million dollar grant from the WI Department of Health Services (WDHS) to establish a statewide program for surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) in wastewater.

Looking for COVID-19 virus in wastewater is being heralded as a potential way to identify emerging outbreaks in communities.

The surveillance network will provide for trend analysis and early detection of SARS-CoV-2 in communities across the state by monitoring viral RNA in influent streams and sludge at wastewater treatment facilities (POTWs). High frequency sampling will focus on the two largest POTWs in each of the 21 most populace counties. Lower frequency sampling will take place at 80 additional POTWs located in more rural Wisconsin.

The project will run for a period of one year, beginning June 1, 2020.

Researchers at the UW-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences led by Sandra McLellan will partner with the WSLH team to implement the study. The study team will work in close collaboration with the WDHS and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) in POTW recruitment, data interpretation and public messaging.

According to Kayley Janssen, the WSLH expects to test about 100 samples a week and that poses one of the project’s first challenges.

“Current methods for this type of testing are for much lower sample numbers,” she said.

In order to jump-start method development for the high-throughput testing, a combo Water Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology team successfully competed for a $10,000 UW/WARF COVID-19 Accelerator Challenge Grant to develop, optimize and implement a higher throughput method of concentration and isolation of SARS-CoV-2 from wastewater. Janssen and Dagmara Antkiewicz are co-PI’s on the grant.

“We want to tease apart what will work well with sensitivity,” Janssen explained.

 

WisCon Helps with PPE Decon and Inspection

One of the long-standing problems in the COVID-19 pandemic has been the shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers and first responders, oftentimes requiring them to re-use their N95 respirator face masks. But in order to re-use them, the masks need to be decontaminated.

That’s where the occupational health and safety consultants in the WSLH WisCon Onsite Safety and Health Consultation Program have been providing a vital service to the state.

Building on UV light decontamination methods developed by Nebraska Medicine and the University of Nebraska Medical Center, a strike team of three WisCon consultants – George Gruetzmacher, Robert Vercellino and Kelli Rush – have been working out of the State Emergency Operations Center assisting local communities in implementing PPE decontamination units and providing training.

The WisCon consultants have worked with local emergency management staff and first responders in Sawyer, Jackson and Marquette counties, as well as Lake Delton and several other Wisconsin communities.

In addition to onsite training in the communities, WisCon has created several training videos.

The second WisCon PPE effort focuses on staff going to State warehouses to inspect PPE to ensure suitability for intended use and provide feedback. A rotating team of WisCon consultants have fulfilled this mission including Kelsi Berlinghof, Terry Lawrin, Veronica Scott and Dan Trocke.

Here are some news articles about the WisCon efforts –

https://www.kenoshanews.com/news/local/kfd-decontamination-process-puts-kenosha-ahead-of-the-curve/article_10a43fcd-ff0a-59c7-8828-9a95210d5da6.html

https://www.apg-wi.com/sawyer_county_record/free/new-uv-decontamination-site-to-be-set-up-in-sawyer-county/article_57157a92-8e16-11ea-abcb-df9c840c048d.html

https://www.wiscnews.com/wisconsindellsevents/news/local/dells-lake-delton-emergency-management-unveils-new-decontamination-device-for-public-use/article_74b5b5be-0022-52f9-965d-f9b04120f7d9.html

The use and prevalence of lead has impacted societies for millennia. While we are well aware of the impacts of lead on modern public health, recent developments in archaeological science has painted a clearer picture of its impact in the past.

In this webinar WSLH Isotope Geochemist Sean Scott explains new research detailing the environmental and public health effects of lead in antiquity, specifically associated with its uses in the Roman Empire. Sean also discusses how environmental implications of past societies compare to similar challenges we face today in Wisconsin.

Webinar link – https://slhstream2.ad.slh.wisc.edu/Mediasite/Play/521689718baa46299303aa0c613fabb51d

 

Resources to learn more

Archaeometry – Elevated lead exposure in Roman occupants of Londinium: New evidence from the archaeological record

 

Online References

https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/londinium-romans-blood-lead-levels-so-high-they-may-have-lowered-birth-rates/4010808.article

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-39366713

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roman_lead_pipe_ostia_antica_04.jpg

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/csem.asp?csem=34&po=10)

https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/

 

Scientific Papers

Bollhofer A, Rosman KJR (2001) Lead isotopic ratios in European atmospheric aerosols. Phys Chem Earth Pt B 26:835-838 doi:Doi 10.1016/S1464-1909(01)00094-6

Alvarez-Fernandez, N., Cortizas, A.M., Lopez-Costas, O., 2020, Atmospheric mercury pollution deciphered through archaeological bones. Journal of Archaeological Science, 119, 105159

Delile, H., Blichert-Toft, J., Goiran, J. P., Keay, S., and Albarède, F., 2014, Lead in ancient Rome’s city waters, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 111(18), 6594–9.

Diaz-Somoano M et al. (2009) Stable Lead Isotope Compositions In Selected Coals From Around The World And Implications For Present Day Aerosol Source Tracing. Environ Sci Technol 43:1078-1085 doi:10.1021/es801818r

Durali-Mueller, S., Brey, G. P., Wigg-Wolf, D., and Lahaye, Y., 2007, Roman lead mining in Germany: its origin and development through time deduced from lead isotope provenance studies. Journal of Archaeological Science, 34, 1555–67.

Flemming, D. E. B., Boulay, D., Richard, N. S., Robin, J.-P., Gordon, C. L., Webber, C. E., and Chettle, D. R., 1997, Accumulated body burden and endogenous release of lead in employees of a lead smelter, Environmental Health Perspectives, 105, 224–33.

Gilfillan, S. C., 1965, Lead poisoning and the fall of Rome, Journal of Occupational Medicine, 7, 53–60.

Hodge, A. T., 1981, Vitruvius, Lead Pipes and Lead Poisoning. American Journal of Archaeology, 85, 486–91.

Lopez-Costas, O., Kylander, M., Mattielli, N., Alvarez-Fernandez, N., Perez-Rodriguez, M., Mighall, T., Bindler, R., Cortizas, A.M. 2020. Human bones tell the story of atmospheric mercury and lead exposure at the edge of Roman World. Science of the Total Environment, 710:136319.

McConnell, J.R., Edwards, R., 2008, Coal burning leaves toxic heavy metal legacy in the Arctic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105, 12140-12144.

Montgomery, J., Evans, J. A., Powlesland, D., and Roberts, C. A., 2005, Continuity or colonization in Anglo-Saxon England? Isotope evidence for mobility, subsistence practice, and status at west Heslerton, American Journal of PhysicalAnthropology, 126, 123–38.

Montgomery, J., Evans, J. A., Chenery, S. R., Pashley, V., and Killgrove, K., 2010, ‘Gleaming, white, and deadly’: Usinglead to track human exposure and geographic origins in the Roman period in Britain, Journal of Roman Archaeology;Supplementary Series, 78, 199–226.

Nriagu, J. O., 1983, Lead and Lead poisoning in antiquity, Wiley, New York.

Patterson, C. C., Shirahata, H., and Ericson, J. E., 1987, Lead in ancient human bones and its relevance to historical developments of social problems with lead, The Science of the Total Environment, 61, 167–200.

Penney, S., and Shotter, D. C. A., 1996, An inscribed Roman salt-pan from Shavington, Cheshire, Britannia, 27,360–5.

Retief, F. P., and Cilliers, L., 2005, Lead poisoning in ancient Rome, Acta Theologica, 26, 147–64.

Scarborough, J., 1984, The myth of lead poisoning among the romans: An essay re-view, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 39(4), 469–75.

Schwikowski, M., Barbante, C., Doering, T., Gaeggeler, H.W., Boutron, C., Shotterer, U., Tobler, L., Van de Velde, K., Ferrari, C., Cozzi, G., Rosman, K., Cescon, P., 2004, Post-17^th Century changes of European lead emissions, recorded in high-altitude alpine snow and ice. Environmental Science and Technology, 38, 957-964.

Shafer, M. M., Siker, M., Overdier, J. T., Ramsl, P. C., Teschler-Nicola, M., and Farrell, P. M., 2008, Enhanced methods for assessment of the trace element composition of Iron-age bone, Science of the Total Environment, 401,144–61.

Shaw, H., Montgomery, J., Redfern, R., Gowland, R., and Evans, J., 2016, Identifying migrants in Roman London usinglead and strontium stable isotopes, Journal of Archaeological Science, 66, 57–68.

Sherman LS, Blum JD, Dvonch JT, Gratz LE, Landis MS (2015) The use of Pb, Sr, and Hg isotopes in Great Lakes precipitation as a tool for pollution source attribution. Science of the Total Environment 502:362-374 doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.09.034

Shotyk, W., Weiss, D., Appleby, P. G., Cheburkin, A. K., Frei, R., Gloor, M., Kramers, J. D., Reese, S., and Van DerKnaap, W. O., 1998, History of atmospheric Lead deposition since 12,370 14C yr BP from a peat bog, Jura Mountains,Switzerland, Science, 281, 1635–40.

Smith KE, Shafer MM, Weiss D, Anderson HA, Gorski PR (2017) High-Precision (MC-ICPMS) Isotope Ratio Analysis Reveals Contrasting Sources of Elevated Blood Lead Levels of an Adult with Retained Bullet Fragments, and of His Child, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Biological trace element research 177:33-42 doi:10.1007/s12011-016-0872-3

Stacey, J.S., Kramers, J.D., 1974, Approximation of terrestrial lead isotope evolution by a two-stage model. Earth and Planetary Sciences Letters, 26, 207-221.

Tzaphlidou, M., and Zaichick, V., 2003, Calcium, phosphorous, calcium–phosphorous ratio in rib bone of healthyhumans, Biological Trace Element Research, 93, 63–74.

Waldron, H. A., Mackie, A., and Townshend, A., 1976, The lead content of some Romano-British bones, Archaeometry, 18, 221–7.

 

 

 

 

 

Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene Director Jamie Schauer brings a unique vantage point to the COVID-19 response as both an internationally-recognized air pollution expert and as the leader of Wisconsin’s public health laboratory.

In an interview with the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering, Schauer – also a UW professor of civil and environmental engineering – reflects on the similarities and differences between infectious respiratory diseases and air pollution and how experts in each can help lead the way forward through the pandemic.

https://www.engr.wisc.edu/news/schauer-leads-covid-19-testing-efforts-at-wslh/

 

Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) Chemical Emergency Response Coordinator Noel Stanton highlights the chemical response side of the WI Laboratory Response Network (LRN) and provides insight on how the WSLH Chemical Response Division leads the response in Wisconsin. He explains the WSLH response to chemical threat agents, including chemical weapons exposure testing and discuss our work with first responders, as well as provides real-life examples.

Webinar link – https://slhstream2.ad.slh.wisc.edu/Mediasite/Play/5d8466c7066844ffa7696ff30ad579f91d

Please note the following changes to the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene’s operations due to the observance of the Memorial Day holiday.

The table below lists the hours of operations for our Clinical Specimen Receiving departments. We will have staffing to accept clinical specimens at both our 2601 Agriculture Drive and our 465 Henry Mall facilities on Saturday, May 23rd.

As always, if you have an off-hours emergency, please call the WSLH Emergency Pager at 608-263-3280.

 

The University of Wisconsin-Madison announced today that Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) Director and UW Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Jamie Schauer is one of 11 UW-Madison faculty appointed to WARF Named Professorships.

According to UW-Madison, “The award honors faculty who have made major contributions to the advancement of knowledge, primarily through their research endeavors, but also as a result of their teaching and service activities. Award recipients choose the names associated with their professorships.”

Schauer was appointed the William C. Boyle Professor of Environmental Engineering.

Schauer chose William Boyle for his named professorship because of the profound impact Prof. Boyle had on the UW-Madison Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

“Although I did not know him that well personally as he retired two years before I started, he was an iconic figure in the development of the environmental engineering part of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department,” Schauer said. “His background has many overlaps with mine but offset by about 30 years. We lived in some of the same cities as kids and also both earned our PhDs from Caltech. He is by far the most significant figure in the development of our program.”

Prof. Boyle passed away earlier this year.

According to UW-Madison, “The WARF Named Professorships awards are made possible because of the research efforts of UW–Madison faculty and staff. Technology that arises from these efforts is licensed by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) and the income from successful licenses is returned to the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education. It’s used to fund research activities throughout the divisions on campus, including these awards.”

The UW announcement also includes faculty who received H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowships and Kellett Mid-Career Awards. Schauer also received these awards earlier in his career at UW-Madison.

UW-Madison’s official announcement — https://news.wisc.edu/faculty-receive-warf-kellett-romnes-awards-2/

 

The latest issue of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health’s Quarterly alumni magazine features an article about the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene and the vital role the WSLH has played in Wisconsin for more than a century.

“As the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) spreads across the globe, scientists at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene at the University of Wisconsin-Madison respond in the tradition set by their predecessors from the lab’s founding in 1903—providing accurate testing for Wisconsin physicians to protect the health of the state’s residents.” Read the article.

Reprinted with permission from Wisconsin Sea Grant. Original story link

By Marie Zhuikov – April 28, 2020

 

A Wisconsin Sea Grant-funded project has helped improve the state’s capability to test for PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) and led to the discovery of their widespread presence in rainwater across the country.

The project is led by Martin Shafer, senior scientist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health and the and Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH). Shafer is also a principal researcher with the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP), the nation’s longest-running program for monitoring the chemistry of precipitation, which is housed at the WSLH.

Shafer said the presence of PFAS in everything from the food supply, personal care products, lakes and the atmosphere is a “growing crisis.” PFAS exposure is linked to human health concerns, including compromised immunity, low birth weight, endocrine disruption and cancer.

“Everyone in the world, including those in northern Canada and remote regions, all have substantial levels of PFAS in their bloodstreams,” Shafer said. “Some people believe PFAS are a significant threat to human health.”

These chemicals get into the environment from point sources like firefighting foam and industrial processes. Shafer said an estimated 4,500 to 5,000 PFAS compounds exist, but federal regulations currently only target two: PFOS and PFOA.

With help from the Sea Grant funding, the WSLH can now measure levels of 36 PFAS compounds, which is the highest available in the state. “Two other labs in Wisconsin can test for PFAS, but they can’t offer the breadth of compounds nor the breadth of matrices that the state lab can,” Shafer said.

Rainwater is another source of PFAS that, until recently, has received limited study. In his researcher role with the federal NADP, Shafer is in an ideal situation to study the cycling of PFAS in the atmosphere and rainwater deposition.

Precipitation samples from 263 sites of the NADP National Trends Network across the country “appear” on his lab doorstep every weekday. Studying samples from 31 of those sites, Shafer found measurable levels of PFAS in almost all, some up to four or five nanograms per liter.

“Considering that Wisconsin just promulgated an action level of two nanograms per liter and a regulatory level of 20 for PFAS, that’s not insignificant,” he said. “We showed that deposition from rainfall events integrated over a year could represent and supply a large fraction of PFAS loading to large lakes, and similarly, to terrestrial environments that are not receiving any other point-source loadings of PFAS.”

Shafer presented his rainfall study results at the American Geophysical Union meeting last fall in San Francisco, which resulted in media interest from outlets like “The Guardian,” and The Weather Channel. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also took note and will be using these data in their deposition models.

Shafer is now gearing up to study the role of wastewater treatment facilities in disseminating PFAS. Sea Grant is funding a graduate student to work on this project and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is providing funding for analysis at the WSLH. Samples of wastewater influents, effluents, biosolids and air emissions will be collected and analyzed.

Because the wastewater treatment facilities collect and concentrate wastes from many different sources, Shafer is concerned that they could unwittingly be a point-source for PFAS pollution. Spreading biosolids produced at the treatment plant on agricultural fields could result in further dissemination with potential for contamination of water resources and crops.

With funding and collaboration with the DNR, Shafer will also be studying how PFAS are distributed and transformed in the atmosphere. He will be collecting PFAS precipitation samples from seven NADP sites in Wisconsin for a three-and-a-half-month period, every week.

“That will be one of the more intensive studies of PFAS done anywhere,” Shafer said. He’s also working with several northeastern states to establish a similar project.

“We need to understand what is driving the distribution pattern of PFAS in the atmosphere — what compounds are contributing to the load, how can we fingerprint sources – a whole list of things where further work would need to be done,” Shafer said.

April 19 – 25, 2020 is the 44^th annual national Lab Week.

This year, Lab Week during the COVID-19 pandemic means the dedicated Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) scientists who took a quick break from testing for this outdoors photo wore non-PPE face masks and were socially distanced.

WSLH leadership and our Board THANK all the WSLH scientists and staff, as well as all laboratory professionals, for their dedication to their science and the people we all serve.

 

The University of Wisconsin-Madison highlighted the campus partnerships helping expand COVID-19 virus testing in Wisconsin.

Read more at https://news.wisc.edu/wisconsin-state-laboratory-of-hygiene-works-with-campus-partners-to-test-for-covid-19/