The Department of Health Protection is excited to announce its successful accreditation at the departmental level in two international standards: ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO 15189. This is a significant milestone in the Department’s ongoing commitment to provide a high-quality and professional service to their patients and clients, as well as to ensure a reliable monitoring of environmental health in the general population.

The journey began in 2021 when the “Environmental Hygiene and Human Biological Monitoring” service successfully passed its initial ISO/IEC 17025 audit. Over the following years, the technical scope of the service has continuously expanded. In April 2024, the service earned ISO 15189 accreditation for its analyses in the human biomonitoring domain.

As of February 2025, the accreditation has been extended to the entire department, now covering the Medical Expertise and Data Intelligence service as well. Additionally, the scope has been further expanded to include active air sampling on the field and laboratory analyses for Microbiology of the Built Environment, the latter of which has been developed from scratch over the past three years.

A big thank you to everyone in the department for their outstanding teamwork – it was truly key in achieving this milestone! Special recognition goes to Prof. Dr. An van Nieuwenhuyse, Head of the Department of Health Protection, for her leadership and dedication in guiding the teams toward this achievement.