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: 5.4.13.1
Link to relevant standard
REQUEST:
This section deals with the annual Quality Audit. One sentence reads:
"Such audits shall be carried out by trained and qualified personnel who are, whenever resources permit, independent of the activity to be audited."
What is the meaning of "trained and qualified" as used in the sentence? Trained and qualified in environmental matters, auditing techniques etc?
TNI FINAL RESPONSE:
(Quality System Expert Committee/NELAP Accreditation Council, 3-x-11)
Since "trained and qualified" is not defined, it would be up to the laboratory to state what their requirements are. It would be expected that the person performing the audit has a knowledge of the portion of laboratory operations that are being audited. NELAC 5.5.2.6 states that the lab management defines the minimal level of qualifications for all positions.