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.NELAP Board Adopts New TNI Standards
Date Posted: 10-29-2009
On August 24, 2009, the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (NELAP) Board adopted the new TNI standards for use in the state recognized laboratory accreditation programs. By separate vote, the NELAP Board established July 1, 2011, as the official implementation date. The July 1, 2011, implementation date allows state accreditation bodies sufficient time to change state regulations to reflect the new standards, as well as allowing laboratories time to come into compliance with the new standards. Prior to implementing the new standards, the NELAP Board will be working with other TNI committees to ensure that all policies, checklists and SOPs needed for implementation of the new standards are in place for the state accreditation bodies.
In order to help laboratories prepare for implementation of the new standards, TNI’s Technical Assistance Committee, with funding from EPA, will be sponsoring a series of workshops which will orient labs to the new standards and highlight differences. The workshops are tentatively scheduled to be held in the January to August 2010 timeframe at the following locations: Albany, NY, Boston, MA, Edison, NJ, St. Petersburg Beach, FL, Orlando, FL, Dallas, TX, Chicago, IL, Topeka, KS, Salem, OR, Salt Lake City, UT, and Washington, DC. Final information on workshop dates and locations will be available on the TNI website in early 2010.
Over the past few months, the TNI laboratory accreditation standards were modified by seven Tentative Interim Amendments (TIAs) and minor several editorial changes. The final versions of these documents are now available on the TNI website here. Those individuals and organizations that had purchased an earlier version of the standards with the ISO language will receive an updated version in early November. A summary of the seven TIAs is on the TNI website under News.