Adapted from National Safety Council news release

The National Safety Council Alcohol, Drugs and Impairment Division (ADID) has selected Amy Miles as the 2025 Robert F. Borkenstein Award recipient. The award was presented on Feb. 16, 2025.

Recognized for her exemplary career in forensic toxicology over the last quarter century, Miles is steadfast and proactive in improving highway safety and public health in Wisconsin and nationwide. She has established herself as a key proponent for optimizing toxicology to enhance public safety, as she has furthered the advancement of research, consulted with national and local law enforcement and led groundbreaking initiatives.

“Amy is a passionate national education and resource leader in forensic toxicology who is engaged with professionals in several other fields involving drug-impaired driving and oral fluid drug testing,” said Dr. Michael Corbett, NSC Alcohol, Drugs and Impairment Division immediate past division chair.

Miles currently serves as Program Project Manager and National Resource Toxicologist at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) and Project Manager of the Society of Forensic Toxicologists (SOFT) – National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Regional Toxicology Liaisons.

Miles is the third WSLH Forensic Toxicology recipient of the Borkenstein Award. Pat Harding received the award in 2007 and Laura Liddicoat in 2016.

The Award, founded in honor of Robert F. Borkenstein, a pioneering and dedicated highway safety researcher and advocate who invented the Breathalyzer®, recognizes individuals who, through a lifetime of service, have made outstanding contributions to the field of alcohol- and drug-related traffic safety. Honorees are selected by professionals in the Alcohol, Drugs and Impairment Division of the National Safety Council.

 

The Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will be holding a virtual (streaming via MS Teams) Environmental Science Day on February 26, 2025.

 

MS Teams Meeting Link

Meeting ID: 219 221 568 149
Passcode: aC66bg6N

 

For more information on the event, please contact Camille Danielson (WSLH) or Becca Fahney (DNR)

 

Tentative Agenda (as of 12/12/24 – agenda subject to change)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Former WSLH Director and Medical Director Dr. Stan Inhorn passed on February 19, 2025.

Dr. Inhorn was WSLH Assistant Director starting in 1960, becoming Director from 1966-1979. He then left to create and lead the UW Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, eventually returning to the WSLH and retiring as WSLH Medical Director in the late 1990s.

Dr. Inhorn had a major impact on the WSLH and our role in the state and nation, as well as on healthcare in the United States.

Dr. Stan Inhorn obituary

Please note the following changes to the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene’s operations due to the observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday.

The table below lists the hours of operations for our Clinical Specimen Receiving departments.

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

 

Please note the following changes to the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene’s operations due to the observance of the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

The table below lists the hours of operations for our Clinical Specimen Receiving department.

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

 

The Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene will be closed on Thursday, November 28, 2024 for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Our Specimen Receiving departments will observe the following hours of operation for the Thanksgiving holiday:

 

 

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

The Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene was featured in three recent stories published by the UW School of Medicine and Public Health (UWSMPH).

 

Pathbreaking cystic fibrosis research initiated in Wisconsin 40 years ago changed the course of diagnosis and treatment of children around the world

The WSLH Newborn Screening Program played a critical role in this groundbreaking research.

“The Wisconsin cystic fibrosis RCT project certainly laid the foundation for CF newborn screening in Wisconsin, in the nation, and beyond. CF newborn screening in Wisconsin continues to evolve,” she (WSLH Newborn Screening Director Dr. Mei Baker) explained. “With the adoption of next-generation sequencing technology, the newborn screening laboratory at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene now can simultaneously detect 689 CF-causing variants. It is the most comprehensive panel at this time, and a relevant practice to the current discussion on genomic sequencing in newborn screening.”

UWSMPH story – https://www.pediatrics.wisc.edu/pathbreaking-cystic-fibrosis-research-initiated-in-wisconsin-40-years-ago-changed-the-course-of-diagnosis-and-treatment-of-children-around-the-world/

 

Wisconsin Partnership Program Turns 20 – Support for Medical and Public Health Education, Community Service and Research Helps Transform School

The latest issue of UWSMPH’s Quarterly magazine has a story on the 20^th anniversary of the Wisconsin Partnership Program (WPP), which was started with a donation of half of the proceeds from the conversion of Blue Cross & Blue Shield United of Wisconsin from a non-profit to a for-profit corporation. The other half of the proceeds was donated to the Medical College of Wisconsin. The WPP has helped transform the UW Medical School into the UW School of Medicine and Public Health – the country’s first combined school of medicine and public health.

The WSLH gets a mention in the article as being key to this transformation.

 

‘Forever chemicals’ show up in Wisconsin residents – Highest levels found in those who eat locally-caught fish

The WSLH Chemical Emergency Response (CER) section performed PFAS testing on serum samples from 605 adults as part of a collaborative UWSMPH, WSLH and WI Department of Health Services research study. The finding were published in Environmental Research – link below.

UWSMPH news release – https://www.med.wisc.edu/news/pfas-found-in-wisconsin-residents/

Determinants of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) exposure among Wisconsin residents – Environmental Research, Volume 254, 1 August 2024, 119131, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2024.119131

 

 

The UW School of Pharmacy profiles Assistant Professor Heather Barkholtz’s latest research in “Breaking Bad Chemistry”.

Barkholtz, who holds a joint appointment with the UW School of Pharmacy and the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene’s Forensic Toxicology section, received a National Institute of Justice grant to “…tease out the toxicological difference between mirror-image meth isomers.”

Barkholtz is also collaborating with School of Pharmacy and School of Medicine and Public Health faculty to research the intoxicating properties of various cannabinoids found in cannabis or marijuana products.

Read the story – https://pharmacy.wisc.edu/2024/09/05/breaking-bad-chemistry/

Please note the following changes to the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene’s operations for the Labor Day holiday.

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

 

Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene wastewater surveillance data is just one contribution from University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (UWSMPH) researchers to Public Health Madison-Dane County’s award-winning interactive respiratory illness dashboard.

More about the collaboration – https://www.med.wisc.edu/news/data-alerts-community-when-sickness-lurks/