USE OF REFERENCE MATERIALS IN ACCREDITATION SYSTEMS FOR ENVIRONMENTALLABORATORIES

The accreditation of laboratories is increasingly demanded as evidence of the reliability of the data they produce, and is therefore of stra tegic importance to laboratories for maintaining and/or increasing the ir level of competitiveness. Although accreditation is increasingly de veloped in sectors such as food quality control, it is less common for environmental laboratories. A very important feature in quality-assur ance practice (whether related to accreditation or not) is the use of reference materials, which are invaluable tools for the verification o f quality control in environmental analysis. Some problems are discuss ed which relate to the use of reference materials by environmental lab oratories and their linking to accreditation. (C) 1998 Elsevier Scienc e B.V.