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 8.2.1
REQUEST:
The section states, "the accreditation body shall make publicly available information about the current status of the accreditations that it has granted to CAB's". The section does not distinguish between primary accreditation bodies and secondary accreditation bodies. 2009 TNI V2M2 Section 4.1.1.e states, "the primary accreditation body shall ensure the laboratory meets the proficiency testing requirements for initial and continued accreditation as specified in this Standard. In this capacity the primary AB shall have procedures in place to:"...."maintain the current accreditation status of laboratories in their program in the National Database, when the database is established". I would appreciate an interpretation regarding the responsibility of the secondary accreditation body to use or not to use the National Database also known as the Laboratory Accreditation Management System (LAMS) to provide information about the laboratories granted secondary accreditation.
TNI FINAL RESPONSE:
V2M1 is silent in regard to requirements for any Accreditation Body to use or update the national database, also known as the Laboratory Accreditation Management System or LAMS.
The language in V2M2 Section 4.1.1, subclause e) includes a requirement for the Primary AB to maintain the national database current but is silent about secondary accreditations.
Thus, there is no requirement in either the 2009 or the 2016 Standard for ABs to report secondary accreditations into LAMS.