Capabilities - Occupational & Environmental Health

Bringing together expertise in occupational medicine, biochemistry, analytical toxicology, clinical chemistry, physiology, microbiology, immunology and computer modelling. We provide a comprehensive service for the investigation of workplace and environmental hazards and their consequences on human health. Our work ranges from single investigations of exposure to a chemical, biological or physical hazard through to large scale surveys.

  Case Studies

Our occupational and environmental health capability encompasses:

• Biological Monitoring - measuring individual exposure to organic chemicals, pesticides, metals and trace elements in biological samples.
  
  
• Analytical and forensic toxicology.
  


• Sampling and identification of infectious, toxic and allergenic microorganisms. Molecular biology and mobile laboratory facilities are available.
  
  
• Microbiology. Category 3 containment microbiology facilities are available.
  
  
• Human metabolism studies, including: dermal and inhalation uptake; toxicokinetic studies.
  
  
• Health effects arising from toxic substances and physical agents, including: development of early markers of organ damage; assessment of biological, psychological and physiological changes caused by external stressors.
  
  
• Occupational asthma.
  

• Health surveillance for hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS), including the application of standardised testing.
  
  
• Drugs and Alcohol Screening

• Occupational health assessment. Clinical assessment of occupational lung disease is carried out through the Centre for Workplace Health.
  
  
• Computational modelling using specialist toxicological applications, including: physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models; application of Bayesian statistics; structure-activity relationships; expert systems for the prediction of toxicity and skin penetration; mathematical modelling; modelling of population variability.
  
  
• In-vitro toxicology, including: metabolism studies; percutaneous absorption.
  
  
• Co-organiser of the UK Quality Assessment Scheme for metals in blood.

Further Information:

Contact our Business Development Unit by telephone (+44) 01298 218218, fax (+44) 01298 218822 or email hslinfo@hsl.gov.uk.

  Back to the top