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.TNI Standards
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Prices have been established for members of TNI and for the general public. You may join TNI and purchase the standards at the discounted member prices. Any Patron or Sponsor level organizational member of TNI will receive a single-use version of each Standard as part of their annual membership fee. An organization participating at the Partner, Corporate, or Consulting level may select one free single-use volume each year. Individual members may purchase copies of the Standards at member rates.
A single-use copy means that you may install one copy of the standards on, and permit access to it by, a single computer owned, leased or otherwise controlled by you. You may not copy the standards onto a network. You may view the standards on screen and may print a single paper copy. A network-use copy or Site License Subscription mean that the Standards may be stored at a single location in digital form accessible by employees of your organization at that location. Your employees shall have the right to electronically display the Standards on their own computer and may print a copy of the Standards. Site License Subscriptions are purchased on an annual basis and invoices for their renewal are sent out at least 30 days prior to expiration.
The ISO language is shown in italics. Any additional TNI language then follows, in plain text, as a NOTE or as an additional numbered standard item. The TNI standards are integrated documents containing language from relevant ISO standards and language developed by TNI expert committees. The purchase of the integrated TNI documents eliminates the need to purchase a separate copy of the relevant ISO/IEC standard.
If you are a TNI member, be sure to log in before ordering to ensure you receive your TNI member discounted price. If you do not see "TNI Member Price" next to the prices listed below, you are not logged in!
| Laboratory Accreditation Standards | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Volume 1: Management and Technical Requirements for Laboratories Performing Environmental Analysis (2016) |
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Volume 2: General Requirements for Accreditation Bodies Accrediting Environmental Laboratories (2016) |
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Volume 3: General Requirements for Environmental Proficiency Test Providers (2016) |
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Volume 4: General Requirements for an Accreditor of Environmental Proficiency Test Providers (2016) |
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Prices have been established for members of TNI and for the general public. You may join TNI and purchase the standards at the discounted member prices. Any Patron or Sponsor level organizational member of TNI will receive a single-use version of each Standard as part of their annual membership fee. An organization participating at the Partner, Corporate, or Consulting level may select one free single-use volume each year. Individual members may purchase copies of the Standards at member rates.
A single-use copy means that you may install one copy of the standards on, and permit access to it by, a single computer owned, leased or otherwise controlled by you. You may not copy the standards onto a network. You may view the standards on screen and may print a single paper copy. A network-use copy or Site License Subscription mean that the Standards may be stored at a single location in digital form accessible by employees of your organization at that location. Your employees shall have the right to electronically display the Standards on their own computer and may print a copy of the Standards. Site License Subscriptions are purchased on an annual basis and invoices for their renewal are sent out at least 30 days prior to expiration.
Some of the accreditation standards below contain language from ISO/IEC 17025 and 17011. The ISO language is shown in italics. Any additional TNI language then follows, in plain text, as a NOTE or as an additional numbered standard item. The TNI standards are integrated documents containing language from relevant ISO standards and language developed by TNI expert committees. The purchase of the integrated TNI documents eliminates the need to purchase a separate copy of the relevant ISO/IEC standard.
If you are a TNI member, be sure to log in before ordering to ensure you receive your TNI member discounted price. If you do not see "TNI Member Price" next to the prices listed below, you are not logged in!
Laboratory Accreditation Standards Important Note: You are about to purchase the 2009 TNI Standard. This Standard is not the most current version, and is currently only required by the State of Kansas. Please confirm that this is the version that you need to purchase, as refunds will not be issued if the incorrect version is purchased. |
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Volume 1: Management and Technical Requirements for Laboratories Performing Environmental Analysis (2009) |
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The Standards adopted by the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Conference (NELAC) in 2003 are being phased out, but will continue to be the applicable standards until the new TNI standards have been implemented by a particular accreditation body.
| 2003 NELAC STANDARD |  |
TNI has established an avenue for resolution of questions submitted electronically on interpretation of the 2003 NELAC Standard. Click here to view responses to requests that were previously submitted. Click here to submit a new request.
Prices have been established for members of TNI and for the general public. You may join TNI and purchase the standards at the discounted member prices. Any Patron or Sponsor level organizational member of TNI will receive a single-use version of each Standard as part of their annual membership fee. An organization participating at the Partner, Corporate, or Consulting level may select one free single-use volume each year. Individual members may purchase copies of the Standards at member rates.
A single-use copy means that you may install one copy of the standards on, and permit access to it by, a single computer owned, leased or otherwise controlled by you. You may not copy the standards onto a network. You may view the standards on screen and may print a single paper copy. Site License Subscription means that the Standards may be stored at a single location in digital form accessible by employees of your organization at that location. Your employees shall have the right to electronically display the Standards on their own computer and may print a copy of the Standards. Site License Subscriptions are purchased on an annual basis and invoices for their renewal are sent out at least 30 days prior to expiration.
Some of the accreditation standards below contain language from ISO/IEC 17025 and 17011. The ISO language is shown in italics. Any additional TNI language then follows, in plain text, as a NOTE or as an additional numbered standard item. The TNI standards are integrated documents containing language from relevant ISO standards and language developed by TNI expert committees. The purchase of the integrated TNI documents eliminates the need to purchase a separate copy of the relevant ISO/IEC standard.
If you are a TNI member, be sure to log in before ordering to ensure you receive your TNI member discounted price. If you do not see "TNI Member Price" next to the prices listed below, you are not logged in!
| Field Activities Standards | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Volume 1: General Requirements for Field Sampling and Measurement Organizations (2014) |
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Volume 2: General Requirements for Accreditation Bodies Accrediting Field Sampling and Measurement Organizations (2014) |
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Accreditation standards are developed by Expert Committees using a consensus process that includes the elements of openness, balance, due process, and consensus as established by Circular A-119 published by the US Office of Management and Budget.
Circular A-119 defines a voluntary consensus standards body as one having the following attributes:
(i)openness; (ii) balance of interest; (iii) due process; (iv) an appeals process; and (v) consensus, which is general agreement, but not necessarily unanimity, and includes a process for attempting to resolve objections by interested parties, as long as all comments have been fairly considered, each objector is advised of the disposition of his or her objection(s) and the reason(s) why, and the consensus body members are given an opportunity to change their votes after reviewing the comments.
Standards are developed by the TNI Consensus Standards Development Program (CSDP), in conformance with TNI's Procedures Governing Standards Development. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) recently approved the TNI process for standards development indicating that TNI meets the ANSI requirements. This means the TNI standards are developed through an open consensus process in which all members and the public may provide input and have their position considered, preventing dominance by any one group of stakeholders by assuring a balance of interests among the committee members who develop the standards. The Expert Committees (Proficiency Testing; On-Site Assessment; Quality Systems; Accreditation Body; and Field Activities) each develop a Working Draft Standard that is presented to the membership and the public at the TNI Forum on Laboratory Accreditation. As a result of input received during and following that open meeting, the Expert Committees modify their Working Draft Standard to produce the Voting Draft Standard. All TNI members may then vote electronically, providing comments in support of their positive or negative votes. The Expert Committees must allow for public debate on every comment at the next Forum on Laboratory Accreditation. The Expert Committees hold meetings to rule each comment persuasive or non-persuasive and publish a Response to Comments document.
Committees must resolve every persuasive comment, which may require modification of the standard. Some comments may suggest major changes to the standard (e.g., reduce proficiency test frequency to once per year instead of twice per year), and they may be placed on hold until the next standards revision cycle to allow consideration and debate by the membership and the public.
When persuasive comments are resolved and the standard modules are approved by a majority vote of the Committee Members, the standard then becomes final as the TNI Standard.
After a standard has been adopted by an expert committee, it undergoes an editorial review for consistency and then is published on the TNI website. After publication, TNI must allow thirty days for appeals. The standards will be available for adoption and implementation after resolving appeals.
After resolution of appeals, TNI Standards are considered to be final, and the standard may be used by any organization. However, for use within TNI's National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (NELAP), the TNI Laboratory Accreditation System Executive Committee (LASEC) reviews the adopted TNI Standard and develops supplementary documents (guidance, SOPs, etc.), when needed. The LASEC then forwards the standards to the TNI NELAP Accreditation Council for this program group to adopt the standard for use by all Accreditation Bodies (ABs). TNI expectsMost NELAP ABs will require a lead time of about two years to amend regulations and implement the a new standard. Because However, modifying regulations is restrictive and time-consuming, the current and NELAP ABs may possibly continue to accredit laboratories to the 2003 NELAC any version of the standards until the year 2010, when their proposed regulations are finalized to allow accreditation to the TNI standard. The listing of NELAP ABs shows which standard each AB is using.
Laboratory Accreditation Standards
Field Activities Standards
Stationary Source Audit Sample Program Standards
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Key:
IS = Interim Standard
MVDS = Modified Voting Draft Standard
MWDS = Modified Working Draft Standard
VDS = Voting Draft Standard
WDS = Working Draft Standard