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Welcome to the Division of Laboratory Science!
The Division of Laboratory Science (DLS) protects the public
health by assuring accurate and reliable clinical, environmental and public
health laboratory services through regulatory oversight, consultation and the
provision of support services to the state public health laboratories located at
the DHS Richmond Laboratory Campus. The Chief of the Division is designated as
the director of the public health laboratory and has responsibility for safety
of “select agents”, overall protection of laboratory personnel, and
adherence to all federal laboratory requirements and assuring key deliverables
to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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DLS provides administrative
direction to three branches: (Laboratory Field
Services, Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program,
Laboratory Central
Services); two programs (Laboratory Animal Use Approval Program and
the National Laboratory Training Network); and the
Office of Laboratory Resource Preparedness and Response (OLRPR).
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The division also oversees and ensures the
provision of adequate facilities, equipment, instrumentation, employee health
and safety, contractual equipment maintenance/repair services, and
technical/scientific support and supplies to support the mission of all the
Department's Laboratories; coordinates the evaluation and integration of the
latest clinical laboratory technology into the healthcare delivery system;
serves as the liaison between the Department and the California Association of
Public Health Laboratory Directors (CAPHLD), and serves as California's
representative to the Association of Public Health
Laboratories (APHL), and to the National Environmental Laboratory
Accreditation Conference (NELAC).
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In addition to these duties, DLS
through the OLRPR manages the Richmond Laboratory Emergency Operations Center
(RLEOC), a
centralized communications and management facility that serves DHS programs in
case of natural disaster, disease outbreak or biological/ chemical/radiological
terrorist event.
· Laboratory Field Services
- Laboratory Field Services (LFS) began overseeing clinical laboratories in 1926
and is responsible for ensuring accurate and reliable clinical laboratory
testing in California. Accurate laboratory test results are essential to protect
the public health as they form the basis for medical decision-making, diagnosis
and treatment. LFS provides oversight for clinical and public health laboratory
operations and for the licensed and certified scientists and other personnel who
perform testing in clinical laboratories. The program inspects, licenses and
certifies clinical laboratories, performs complaint investigations and licenses
personnel who work in laboratories to ensure standards in laboratory testing for
accuracy and reliability.
· Environmental Laboratory Accreditation
Program - The Environmental
Laboratory Accreditation Program (ELAP) was established in 1988 by the State
Legislature (AB 3739, Jones, 1988; Health & Safety Codes 100085 et seq.) as
a fully fee supported program in the Department of Health Services to
accredit/certify environmental testing laboratories for performing work for
regulatory agencies in California. The scope of accreditation established by the
legislature covers the requirements of the Federal and State Safe Drinking Water
Acts (chemistry, including dioxins, microbiology and radiochemistry), Federal
Clean Water Act and the National Pollution Discharge Elimination Monitoring
programs (chemistry including dioxins, microbiology, radiochemistry and toxicity
testing), Federal and State Resource Conservation and Recovery Acts and the
Super Fund for Hazardous Waste Testing (chemistry including dioxins, bioassay,
and physical properties) and the Federal Food and Drug Administration for
Shellfish Sanitation (microbiology and poison). Food testing for pesticide
residues was also added to the scope of accreditation by subsequent legislation.
Recent legislation (SB 2203, Sher, 2000) added Air Quality Testing as one of
other new areas of accreditation. The ELAP regulations (CCR Title 22, Division
4, Chapter 19, Section 64801 et seq.) and the updates cover the process and
requirements of the ELAP Certification Program for Drinking Water, Waste Water,
Hazardous Waste, Food, and Shellfish.
· Laboratory
Central Services – Laboratory Central Services (LCS) provides centralized, professional and
technical support to the public health laboratories at the DHS Richmond
Laboratory Campus. These services include: receiving, processing and routing
medical and environmental samples and specimens; developing, evaluating and
performing decontamination protocols on medical waste; washing and preparing
glassware and instruments; purchasing, breeding, maintaining a variety of
laboratory animals and maintaining animal facilities; providing teleconferencing
services to DHS laboratories.
· National
Laboratory Training Network -
The National Laboratory Training Network (NLTN) is a training system sponsored
by the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) and the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and serves to improve laboratory practice
of public health significance through quality continuing education. NLTN
training activities are offered nationwide, feature expert faculty and introduce
state-of-the-art lab technology. NLTN programs and workshops address emerging
infectious diseases as well as other high priority lab topics, such as
management, quality assurance, current testing and personnel regulations and
safety issues.
· Office of
Laboratory Resource Preparedness and Response – The Office of
Laboratory Resource Preparedness and Response (OLRPR) helps ensure that the DHS Laboratories, those at the county and
local level through CAPHLD, those a the national level through APHL and CDC, and
the DHS epidemiologic programs are interconnected and afforded the most current
information, data, and resources in the areas of public health, laboratory
training and technology, occupational safety and health, and communications and
data resources, particularly those pertaining to terrorist events involving
biological, chemical, and radiological events. Further,
the OLRPR has the responsibility for development and implementation of protocols
employed by the DHS’ All Hazards Triage Laboratory (AHTL), which addresses
Multi-Threat Samples. The OLRPR also has the lead role in developing and
operating the RLEOC, an on-site centralized communications and management
facility, that services a variety of DHS programs and those of other agencies,
both state and federal, when the public health is confronted with disease
outbreaks, natural disasters, and terrorist events.
In addition, the OLRPR secures resources for an coordinates on-site
operations of California Amateur Radio Emergency Services (CARES). CARES
consists of a group of DHS technical staff serving in a volunteer capacity to
ensure DHS has real-time radio communications capability under emergency
conditions at the local, state, and national level.
Paul B. Kimsey, Ph.D.,
Assistant Deputy Director
California Public Health Laboratory Director
850 Marina Bay Parkway
Richmond, CA 94804
(510) 412-5846
Fax (510) 412-5848
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