Section 184A. The department, at the request of any person owning or operating a bacteriological laboratory, may issue a certificate of approval of the performance at such laboratory of bacteriological or serological tests set forth in such certificate; provided, that no such certificate shall be granted hereunder except in accordance with such suitable and reasonable rules and regulations as the department shall establish; authority to establish, and from time to time to alter and amend, such rules and regulations being hereby granted to the department. Rules and regulations governing approval of such bacteriological laboratories made under authority hereof may include provisions relative to the location and equipment of such laboratories, the personal and professional qualifications of the personnel thereof, and the methods employed thereat. The department may from time to time submit to, or request from, any such laboratory such specimens for examination as it may deem necessary to determine whether or not such laboratory can properly perform such tests. Certificates of approval issued under authority hereof shall be valid for one year from their dates of issue and may be annually renewed. The fee for the issue, and for each annual renewal, of every such certificate shall be determined annually by the commissioner of administration under the provision of section three B of chapter seven; provided, that no such fee shall be charged or collected on account of any such laboratory established and maintained by the commonwealth or by any political subdivision thereof. Any such certificate may be revoked by the department, after thirty days' notice to such laboratory and the opportunity to be heard by the department, if in its judgment the public interest so requires.

For the purposes of this section, a bacteriological laboratory is defined to be a place or establishment advertised, and maintained or purported to be maintained, in whole or in part, for the purpose of accepting for and subjecting to bacteriological or serological study or analysis, or both, specimens of blood, sputum, urine, feces or other fluids, secretions or excretions of the body of persons ill, or suspected of being ill, with a disease dangerous to the public health, or of the body of persons who are to serve as donors or recipients of blood or derivatives of blood.

The department is hereby further authorized to grant certificates of approval for laboratory tests upon milk, foods, eating utensils, water and sewage in accordance with such rules and regulations as the department may establish under the authority granted above. Only one certificate and one fee shall be required for all of the tests mentioned in this section.