CHLOROBIPHENYLS AND ORGANOCHLORINE PESTICIDES IN FISH AND SEDIMENTS -3 YEARS OF QUASIMEME LABORATORY PERFORMANCE STUDIES

A series of five laboratory performance studies on the analysis of chl orobiphenyls (CBs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) has been condu cted within the three year EU-QUASIMEME (Quality Assurance of Informat ion for Marine Environmental Monitoring in Europe) programme. The resu lts of the Rounds 4 and 5 and the overall results of this programme ar e discussed, It was shown that laboratories with a positive attitude t owards qualtiy control could improve the accuracy of their data substa ntially. This is mainly explained by the learning element of the progr amme, which consisted of giving detailed advice and guidance to the pa rticipants and the organisation of a workshop. Two distinct recommenda tions are given to managers of marine monitoring programmes. To obtain a higher accuracy in monitor programmes, particularly for the compone nt dealing with temporal trend studies, it is recommended that a small group of qualified laboratories should be selected to carry out such a task. Secondly the currently available analytical methods for CBs an d OCPs do not allow the production of very accurate results when conce ntration are below 1 mu g/kg. (C) 1997 Science Ltd. All rights reserve d.