develop consensus standards for use by TNI's programs. This group has a support role in assisting other programs with activities such as guidance and standards interpretation.
fosters the generation of data of known and documented quality is through the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program, or NELAP. The purpose of this program is to establish and implement a program for the accreditation of environmental laboratories.
is to establish and maintain a national PT program to support TNI’s National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program, and other activities.
Field Activities Program (NEFAP) Executive Committee is to establish and implement an accreditation program for field sampling and measurement organizations (FSMOs).
Audit Sample Program is to develop consensus standards for the manufacture and analysis of audit samples for source emission testing.
on a variety of topics of interest to the environmental measurement community. TNI also hosts two regularly scheduled meetings per year, typically in January and August. Both are a week long and involve open meetings of TNI committees as well as training courses and other special sessions.Standard Interpretation
Standard: 2003 NELAC
Section: Appendix D.3.1
Link to relevant standard
REQUEST:
In Standard Methods [SM9020] there is a requirement to do at least one positive sample verification monthly, in some cases 10% etc. Question: What if you do not have any positive samples, should you do a positive verification anyway? I see that for DW (source) even if you do not have any positive samples, a positive verification check is to be done quarterly. How about the other type of waters? For example to check any false negatives? Frequency?
TNI FINAL RESPONSE:
(Quality Systems Expert Committee/ NELAP Board, 10-11-09)
Questions involving specific methods should be directed to the writer of the method. For information about the requirements in the NELAC Standard, see D.3.1 b. The requirement for positive controls exists so that the lab can demonstrate that IT isn't the reason there are no positives, i.e., it isn’t doing something that causes no growth.