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: 2009 TNI
Section: V2M1, Section 6.0 (ISO 17011:2004(E) 6.2.3)
REQUEST:
The Accreditation Body shall identify the specific scopes in which each assessor and expert has demonstrated competence to assess.
MNELAP would like clarification of the words "specific scopes." Does this mean that the AB must identify assessor's competence down to each individual technology listed on the NELAP AB application, or can the assessor's competency be assessed down to categories (e.g. microbiology, inorganic, organic, radiochemistry, asbestos, cryptosporidium, toxicity) and matrix?
TNI FINAL RESPONSE:
The AB must define the specific scopes and how it will determine the assessor's competence in an assessment. The TNI 2009 V2M1 and V2M3 standards do not specify the scope thus the AB must specify assessor's competence including assessment of quality systems, and technical disciplines applicable to the environmental sector as noted under V2M3 4.2.4. The AB shall qualify assessors who have completed and attained a passing score on the written examination of courses approved by the employing accreditation body on assessing quality systems and all technical disciplines comprising a technology or combination of method and technology that the assessor will assess. The AB must comply with the relevant standards on training and approving assessors (V2M1 [ISO 17011:2004(E)] 6.2.2), verified assessments (V2M3 4.2.5) and maintaining assessor’s competence records (V2M1[ISO 17011:2004(E)] 6.4.2).