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).
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: V1M2, Section 5.5.13.1 (e)
REQUEST:
Volume 1, Module 2, Section 5.5.13.1.e states, "Volumetric dispensing devices (except Class A glassware and Glass microliter syringes) shall be checked for accuracy on a quarterly basis."
Our laboratory analyzes VOCs in air, and uses gas tight syringes up to 100 mL to prepare gas standards. We are unsure of whether or not we must complete quarterly checks on these syringes.
We're hesitant about using DI water to perform the quarterly checks on these syringes because they're used for preparing gas standards and we're unsure if moisture in the syringe would affect standard preparation. We're also unaware of how we could complete the quarterly checks using air. Our syringe vendor only offers a verification certificate for newly purchased syringes. For these reasons, it may be impractical to complete quarterly checks.
As I understand it, glass microliter syringes do not require quarterly checks because they deliver such a small volume that a quarterly check would be impractical. Knowing this, if our 100 mL gastight syringes are similar in form (and from the same vendor) as our glass microliter syringes, would they require quarterly checks or not? At a minimum is there any documentation we'd have to have on file for the syringes?
TNI FINAL RESPONSE:
If the syringe in question is neither Class A nor a glass microliter syringe, then it must be checked for accuracy on a quarterly basis. The laboratory must have documentation on file of this quarterly check.