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: 2016
Section: V1M2, Section 5.9.3
REQUEST:
The Standard specifies that "These general QC principles shall apply, where applicable, to all testing laboratories. The manner in which they are implemented is dependent on the types of tests performed by the laboratory (i.e., asbestos, chemical, microbiological, radiological, toxicity) and are further described in Technical Modules. The standards for any given test type shall assure that the applicable principles are addressed: a) All laboratories shall have detailed written protocols in place to monitor the following quality controls: ii. tests to define the variability and/or repeatability of the laboratory results such as replicates." Does this requirement mandate including matrix duplicate in the sample batch/analytical run even if a published method (i.e. EPA 200.8) does not require it?
TNI FINAL RESPONSE:
No.
This part of the Standard provides general requirements and points to the Technical Modules for further requirements. Since the example provided (EPA 200.8) is a chemistry method, the laboratory would look to Module 4, Quality Systems for Chemical Testing, which states in 1.7.2.3.2 b) "The frequency of the analysis of matrix duplicates are as specified by the method or may be determined as part of the contract review process."