Lab Link

Vol. 7, No. 9

Oct. 2015

Archive

April 2019

What does an environmental lab do?

The Environmental Health Division of the Hygienic Laboratory in Ankeny will host an open house to give guests an inside look at the work of Iowa’s environmental and public health laboratory. The event is scheduled for Nov. 19 from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Iowa Laboratories Facility on the Ankeny campus of the Des Moines Area Community College.

Municipalities checking water for blue-green algae

This has been a record-setting year for the number of harmful blue-green algal blooms in Iowa’s ponds and lakes. Algal blooms create a smelly scum on the surface of water, and toxins produced by algae threaten the health of those exposed to it. As of Sept. 3, 34 state park beach advisories were issued for toxin levels that exceeded the World Health Organization’s recommended level of 20 ug/l (micrograms per liter), breaking the previous record of 24 in 2013. Suspected exposure to these algal blooms is reportable to the Iowa Department of Public Health.

Perfect food passes test for infants

Human milk is the perfect food for most infants. But, because “Baby M” was born 10 weeks early, her mother wasn’t able to produce enough milk to sustain her. Formula was available, but couldn’t replicate the many benefits of mother’s milk.

Innovation is key in STEM classroom

There’s good news and bad news about K-12 education in Iowa. The bad news is from Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education (2011): “Iowa has started slowly slouching toward educational mediocrity. Student achievement isn’t declining in Iowa; instead, it’s that students in many other states and nations are rapidly improving and are now outperforming Iowa’s children. In fact, Iowa is the only state in the nation that hasn’t made significant progress in eighth-grade math since 1992.”

Photo Feature: Measuring the air we breathe

Eleven Hygienic Laboratory employees traveled more than 210,000 miles during fiscal year 2015 to monitor and help protect the air we breathe. This work is done on behalf of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and citizens of Iowa by the Coralville-based staff. This well-travelled team performs site visits at 29 locations across the state throughout the year, even during the brutal Iowa winters.