New exercise measures laboratory response to malathion contamination in milk, water

The Edgewood Chemical Biological Center’s (ECBC) Environmental Monitoring Laboratory (EML) recently participated in an exercise that simulated a domestic response to malathion contamination in both milk and water.

Malathion is a widely-used pesticide typically found in agriculture, residential landscaping, and mosquito eradication. It is known to be toxic in humans.

The exercise’s objective was to measure proficiency in sample shipment, receipts, processing, analysis, and reporting.

Nam-Phuong Nguyen, chemist for ECBC EML, managed the exercise and successfully completed the receipt, analysis, and reporting of 200 samples within three business days.

“Phuong embraced the opportunity to participate and highlight our analytical method,” John Schwarz, analytical chemist for ECBC, said. “This exercise was voluntary. We volunteered to participate because of the importance of demonstrating our capabilities even at no cost. Successfully participating in exercises like this can potentially produce future funded work.”

ECBC said typical exercises involve table-top simulation exercises as opposed to real-life reporting and testing. This was the first known exercise that emphasizes real-world laboratory capabilities.

The joint exercise was counted with the Integrated Consortium of Laboratory Networks, which helps coordinate federally-sponsored analytical laboratory services for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear incidents.