What do the Public Health Laboratories (PHL) do?
The labs provide a number of services to help protect and improve the health of people in Washington State. Tracking and monitoring diseases, testing environmental samples, and screening newborns for inherited disorders are just a few examples. We perform tests to: • Help safeguard the environment by analyzing drinking water, food, soils, and shellfish samples for contaminants that can impact public health. • Analyze specific diseases, such as tuberculosis, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, syphilis, and rabies. • Determine the source of outbreaks such as whooping cough (pertussis) in day care centers, E. coli in spinach and vibriosis in shellfish to stop exposure and keep the public safe and healthy. • Help police and fire departments identify unknown materials.
The labs provide a number of services to help protect and improve the health of people in Washington State. Tracking and monitoring diseases, testing environmental samples, and screening newborns for inherited disorders are just a few examples. We perform tests to: • Help safeguard the environment by analyzing drinking water, food, soils, and shellfish samples for contaminants that can impact public health. • Analyze specific diseases, such as tuberculosis, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, syphilis, and rabies. • Determine the source of outbreaks such as whooping cough (pertussis) in day care centers, E. coli in spinach and vibriosis in shellfish to stop exposure and keep the public safe and healthy. • Help police and fire departments identify unknown materials.
