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: V1M1, Section 4.2.1
REQUEST:
NELAC 2003 2.7.2 says, "For continuing accreditation, completion dates of successive proficiency rounds for a given field of proficiency testing shall be approximately six months apart. Failure to meet the semiannual schedule is regarded as a failed study." TNI V1M1 4.2.1 says, "The analysis dates of successive PT samples for the same accreditation FOPT shall be at least five months apart and no longer than seven months apart unless the PT sample is being used for corrective action to establish successful history..." There is no language to describe what happens after 7 months have passed. The sentence is missing from TNI that was in NELAC that directed or allowed the addition of a "failed study" when the semiannual requirement was not met.
Is it the intent of the standard for ABs to continue treating a failure to meet the semiannual schedule as a failed study? This is a significant enforcement issue since a potential alternative seems to be in V2M2, 10.3: "The Primary AB shall revoke the accreditation of a laboratory for a FoPT when:(a) the laboratory does not participate in the PT program as required by this Standard." This penalty is too severe and problematic for what could be just a missed deadline.
TNI FINAL RESPONSE:
(PT Expert Committee and NELAP AC, 10-4-14)
If a laboratory fails to report a single proficiency testing result it is evaluated as "not acceptable" per V2M2 7.3 part b. If the laboratory fails to report results for 2 out of 3 proficiency testing study time frames, then the laboratory's accreditation shall be suspended per V2M2 10.1 for failing to participate in the timeframes specified in the standard.