CURRENT STATUS OF THE EXTERNAL QUALITY ASSURANCE PROGRAMS OF THE OCIETY-FOR-OCCUPATIONAL-AND-ENVIRONMENTAL-MEDICINE

Due to a technical rule issued by the Ministry of Labour, in Germany t oxicological analysis in blood and urine for biological monitoring mus t be carried out under quality assurance. Since 1982 the German Societ y for Occupational and Environmental Medicine has offered 13 intercomp arison programmes. The 1994 round robin considered 7 metals and 5 solv ents in blood, 12 organochlorine compounds in plasma and 14 inorganic, as well as 11 organic, compounds in urine in the occupational and in the environmental exposure range. Reference values and tolerance range s are established by reference laboratories. Successful participation was certified if the results for 2 concentration adjustments were in t olerance range (assigned value +/- 3 S.D.). In 1994 in 119 laboratorie s the percentage rate of accurate results was 59%. This mean success r ate is in agreement with the last 12 round robins.