QUALITY CHALLENGES OF THE CHEMICAL-ANALYSES IN OCCUPATIONAL-HEALTH

Much emphasis is put on the precision and accuracy of sampling and ana lytical procedures in the modern practice of occupation hygiene, This is due to its importance in risk management in various industries, in the occupation health care and in general consumer product safety. Typ ical examples of current practices include external quality control by analysis of unknown control samples, certification of control samples and materials, interlaboratory comparisons, and, finally, internation al standardization of sampling and analytical methods. The Institute o f Occupational Health Sciences (IOHS) has participated for more than t wenty years in several programs of the above-mentioned approaches, and its own methods have been validated by international quality control programs.