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.Implementation Date Set for PTRL Scoring of PTs
Date Posted: 4-28-2019
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(download this memo as a PDF here)
Memorandum
Date: April 28, 2019
To: TNI Proficiency Testing (PT) Program Participants
From: TNI Proficiency Testing Program Executive Committee (PTPEC)
Regarding: Implementation of Section 5.9 of Volume 3 of the 2016 TNI Environmental Laboratory Standard
A key component of the 2016 TNI Standard for NELAP is the revised approach to scoring Proficiency Test results described in Section 5.9 of Volume 3. This revised approach brings back PT Reporting Limit (PTRL) scoring from the 2003 NELAC Standard.
To provide for the orderly and consistent implementation of PTRL scoring, and upon consultation with TNI’s PT Providers, PT Provider Accreditors, and Accreditation Bodies, the PTPEC has determined that all TNI PT Providers shall implement Section 5.9 of Volume 3 of the 2016 TNI Standard on the implementation date set by the NELAP Accreditation Council for Volume 1, January 31, 2020.
How this will affect PT Program participants:
- Prior to January 31, 2020, PT Providers shall continue to score PTs according to the requirements specified in the 2009 TNI Standard. Those NELAP Accreditation Bodies (ABs) that implement the 2016 TNI Standard prior to January 31, 2020, may conduct their own re-evaluation of laboratory results according to the 2016 TNI Standard if they choose or may simply accept the evaluations done according to the 2009 TNI Standard by the PT Providers.
- In PT reports issued on or after January 31, 2020, PT Providers shall score PTs according to the requirements specified in the 2016 TNI Standard. Those NELAP ABs who do not implement the standard by January 31, 2020 may choose to conduct their own re-evaluation of laboratory results according to the 2009 TNI Standard or may simply accept the evaluations done according to the 2016 TNI Standard by the PT Providers.
- TNI’s PT Providers will include the following footnote in PT reports issued on or after January 31, 2020:
“This report is scored by the criteria in the 2016 TNI Standard, Volume 3, instead of by the criteria in the 2009 TNI Standard to which the Proficiency Testing Provider is accredited. This is a planned change and is endorsed by the TNI Proficiency Testing Program Executive Committee for transition to the 2016 TNI Standard.”
- Upon a PT Provider becoming accredited to the 2016 TNI Standard, that PT Provider shall discontinue including the footnote in their PT reports.