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: 5.5.5.2.2.1 (d)
Link to relevant standard
REQUEST:
The section in question states:
d) All initial instrument calibrations must be verified with a standard obtained from a second manufacturer or lot if the lot can be demonstrated from the manufacturer as prepared independently from other lots. Traceability shall be to a national standard, when commercially available. Our question is, does the requirement for second source standard include calibration curves for surrogate compounds?
TNI FINAL RESPONSE:
(Quality Systems Expert Committee / NELAP Board, 10-11-09)
Surrogates are intended to provide a measure of recovery for every sample matrix (D.1.1.3.3 a). A second source check is designed to assure that the analytes of concern are being correctly identified and quantified. Since surrogates are not analytes of concern, and may be held at a constant level in a calibration curve, they are not required to be verified by a second source.