Senior chemist working on the CSS contract with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Superfund Technical Assessment and Response Team (START) supported the Guam Lab Chemicals Round Up in March of 2024 and July of 2025. During both mobilizations, START supported EPA’s mission to collect chemical waste items from across the U.S. island territory of Guam for off-island transport and disposal. As a field chemist, CSS employee owner supporting the effort conducted Hazard Categorization (HazCat) testing on hundreds of unlabeled waste items to help determine the most appropriate waste stream for safe shipping and disposal of each item. CSS employee owner used the EPA Region 9 GeminiTM Chemical Identification analyzer to identify chemicals that appeared to be in their original containers, but that had missing or weathered labels. START supported worker health and safety by conducting screening of the chemical collections and storage spaces for toxic and volatile gases, explosive limits, radiation, and mercury vapor prior to initiating work, and by conducting air monitoring for toxic and volatile gases, and explosive limits during all handling and packing of the chemical wastes. 

woman works with chemicals under a fume hood.
HazCat testing unlabeled waste chemicals in a fume hood for disposal characterization during the Guam Lab Chemicals Round Up. 
woman tests chemical with a kit
HazCat testing the contents of an unlabeled waste drum in Guam for disposal characterization during the Guam Lab Chemicals Round Up. 

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Quality Assurance Audit Reports 

Since 1985 we’ve supported the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and have provided more than 1,600 quality assurance audit reports that the client has used to assess the quality of toxicology studies they sponsor.    Over the last year our employee owners reviewed several studies involving per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) compounds, or “forever chemicals”,…

NG-23 rocket launched

Preparing and Delivering Samples for Travel to the International Space Station

CSS employee owners on contract with NASA delivered six newly prepared Solidification Using a Baffle in Sealed Ampoules (SUBSA)—a high temperature furnace with temperature and timing control for melting samples to create different materials and alloys—samples for the NG-23 launch, which took place on September 14, 2025. On this mission, samples are being delivered for…

Ensuring Safety and Support for Sample Testing on the International Space Station

The International Space Station (ISS) gives scientists the opportunity to study the effects of space travel on human and plant tissues as well as understand how physical materials react during formation or exposure to a microgravity environment. CSS provides integrative expertise to NASA to support research and development and technology demonstrations conducted on the ISS,…