New state law named after NEHA past president Dr. V. Harry Adrounie.

In tribute to 15 years of work devoted to persuading Michigan law makers and several governors to insist that private laboratories meet high standards, new Michigan legislation has been named after Dr. V. Harry Adrounie. Signed into law by Governor Jennifer Granholm on July 21, 2004, the legislation is called The V. Harry Adrounie Laboratory Data Quality Assurance Act.

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The Adrounie Act requires the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to implement a laboratory data quality recognition program to identify commercial laboratories it considers qualified to generate analytical data for submission to the DEQ for compliance purposes. The goal is to ensure that when private commercial laboratories conduct tests and write reports for the state on matters like environmental cleanup, the results are accurate, consistent, and reliable.

The law says: "Each time the department lets a contract or contracts for state-funded laboratory work authorized under this act, the department shall use only those commercial laboratories that are successful participants in the quality recognition program. Exceptions may be made if desired analytical support services are not available from a commercial laboratory that is a successful participant in the quality recognition program." Participation in the quality recognition program grants DEQ access to laboratory records for inspections without prior notice.

Eighty-nine-year-old Adrounie said, "I was really surprised that they put my name on it."

Senator Patricia Birkholz (R-24th District), one of the bill's sponsors, said, "It was an honor to work with such a dedicated and strongly committed scientist. Dr. Adrounie knew this issue thoroughly and yet knew when and where to compromise to move the legislation. His dedication and perseverance made this law."

Bob Wilson, policy advisor to the Michigan senate majority leader, also worked on the bill. He pointed out that "it's a very high honor" for Adrounie to have the act named after him. It's unusual in today's day and age for that to happen.

When Adrounie and Wilson started promoting the need for the new legislation in 1989, there were no state standards for privately owned commercial laboratories, Wilson said. They discovered that there was a large variation in groundwater testing data between state and private laboratories. The state did some undercover investigations and determined that the environmental testing done by private laboratories had some "serious flaws."

"Without proper laboratory results," Adrounie said, "you never know what's going to happen, especially in these days with the bioterrorism [threats]."

Wilson said it took so long to get the legislation passed because the cost of implementing a new law provoked resistance, and because former Governor John Engler was opposed to any new regulations.

The lesson behind the legislative victory is "don't give up," said Adrounie, who has a long list of accomplishments and credentials from the 65 years he has studied and taught environmental and public health issues during his military career and civilian life. "Whatever you're doing, if it's worthwhile, you should never give up," he said. "As I've always told my employees and students, keep the faith."

Adrounie thinks the new law, in addition to helping protect the public health, also will open up employment and sales opportunities. "Previously the state wouldn't accept anybody's laboratory results," he said. "They had two or three pet laboratories, and that was all. So there was no competition. This will open up competition among all the laboratories in the state. I think there are between 50 and 100 laboratories."

The law did get "watered down a bit," he said. "A lobbyist at a committee meeting who represented all of the manufacturers who have their own laboratories was dead set against it, I guess they didn't want to go through the hoops to make sure they were putting out good quality. So we had to water it down a little bit, but that's the way politics works--give and take, I guess. I'm not a politician; I'm just a public health guy."

Adrounie, who has doctorates in public health and the environment, is a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel and former director of the Berrien County Environmental Health Division. He has served as a member of the state Hazardous Waste Policy Committee and the Michigan Underground Storage Tank Finance Assurance Policy Board, and he founded the Michigan Association of Local Environmental Health Administrators. Currently, he chairs the Barry County Solid Waste Oversight Committee and the County Solid Waste Planning Committee, as well as the Barry County Family Independence Agency Board.

He has developed, implemented, and managed environmental health programs on a worldwide basis and developed and operated clinical laboratories for large hospitals and medical services. In addition, he has taught at the University of Hawaii, American University in Armenia, American University in Beirut, and elsewhere in the Middle East and in South America.

Adrounie was instrumental in getting funds for an area groundwater study a number of years ago.

"Right after the Verona pollution episode in Battle Creek, when all of those wells got polluted, Dr. Larkin, who was the Barry-Eaton health officer, and I were talking about it, and we found out that there was no baseline study on any of the groundwater in the state of Michigan. We said we ought to do something about this, so we went over to Kellogg Foundation and got a half million bucks," Adrounie said.

(Adapted, with permission, from the Hastings Banner and Reminder, August 31, 2004.)

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