WHAT IS IT?  THE CDC is an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (other agencies of Health and Human Services include NIH, F, Medicare/Medicaid, and about 12 others.  CDC Headquarters are in Atlanta Georgia.  The CDC is not a regulatory agency, but its standards and guidelines are often included in regulations.  

CDC employes over 7,000 people, many of them chemists, at 10 US locations and several locations abroad.