11 Apr 2005

06 May 2003

Richard Turle

02 May 2003

Rick Wilson

29 Apr 2003

Rick Wilson

12 Mar 2003

Rick Wilson

AND

Laboratory accreditation and proficiency testing are important tools used by laboratories to demonstrate competence and performance. Although it is generally accepted that accreditation and proficiency testing (PT) have helped improve the quality of testing data, there have been few studies that have objectively demonstrated this. The Canadian Association for Environmental Analytical Laboratories (CAEAL), because it operates both an accreditation program and a proficiency testing program, has long-term data that can be used to examine these issues. This paper uses long-term PT data to demonstrate that both PT participation and laboratory accreditation have a positive effect on laboratory performance. Because the CAEAL accreditation program relies on volunteer assessors from participant laboratories, an attempt is also made to determine if there is a beneficial impact to a laboratory of having a trained and active assessor on staff. Finally, a preliminary examination of an international PT study (APLAC T055 metals in water) is presented, with an emphasis on the relationship between the level of PT participation (i.e., frequency) and performance.

Guidance on how to write standard operating procedures in a microbiology laboratory. Common questions asked by laboratories are addressed, and specific clauses in ISO/IEC 17025:2005 are reviewed. The issue of document control is also discussed briefly.

• ILAC-P9 should not focus solely on a minimum frequency (no encouragement to go beyond; no certainty for PT providers)
• Ideally, in the long run, targets might be set for disciplines and sub-areas such as in the APLAC survey
• In the meantime ILAC-P9 could include a requirement that ABs need to have a plan for achieving frequencies that are scientifically acceptable

• There is a clear and measurable benefit to accreditation
• There is a clear and measurable benefit to proficiency testing.
• Clear direction on PT frequency is critical.
• PT frequency should be risk based.

• Accreditation and proficiency testing have quantifiable benefits for laboratory testing;
• The current practices regarding the use of accredited laboratories and proficiency testing in support of First Nations drinking water are not equivalent to the practices adopted by the provinces; and
• CAEAL recommends that all drinking water testing should be conducted at accredited laboratories whenever feasible (communities in proximity to an accredited laboratory, and treatment facilities that have dedicated laboratory resources), and that for other situations, the quality assurance at water treatment plants should be improved through implementation of a program like the Alberta Alternate Program.

Two concerns that have been repeatedly raised by laboratories is that the cost of PT participation is increasing and the acceptance limits for the PT studies keep getting tighter. This presentation examines the history of CAEAL PT prices, what has been done to keep prices down and what is planned for the future to ensure that prices remain competitive. As well, the perception of tightening acceptance limits is examined and, specifically, the impact of improved technology on inter-laboratory standard deviation of low level samples.

Prior to the unfortunate events at Walkerton, few Canadian jurisdictions required the use of accredited laboratories for testing drinking water. However the Walkerton Report recommended mandatory accreditation for all drinking water testing, and a survey of regulatory requirements indicates that most Canadian jurisdictions have adopted the Report’s advice. This paper seeks to illustrate the benefits gained through the laboratory accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025. This is accomplished by examining laboratory performance in the two required elements of accreditation: demonstration of proficiency (through inter-lab comparisons) and demonstration of competence for both technical and management requirements (through site assessment).

The paper reviews the performance of accredited and non-accredited labs in the CAEAL proficiency testing program, and provides example findings by CAEAL assessment teams that conducted first-time assessments of microbiology labs. Examples are provided for sample handling, method validation, method content, supplies and equipment, quality control, and record keeping.. The paper concludes that: (1) accredited labs are more successful in analyzing proficiency testing samples, (2) first time assessments often identify serious technical and quality system issues, (3) proficiency testing alone is insufficient to demonstrate ongoing competence, and (4) quality system issues must be addressed to ensure defensible data.

This presentation is a reminder about the international requirements for proficiency testing (PT) and a summary of the increased attention from international organizations such as ILAC which provides global accreditation policies. Accrediting bodies are required by international standard to ensure that their accredited labs are participating in PT, and the international teams that periodically evaluate the accrediting bodies must contain at least one member who is familiar with PT.

In 2004 ILAC created a PT Consultative Group within its structure in recognition of the importance of PT to its members, and in 2005 ILAC published its policy on PT participation. Also in 2005, the ILAC General Assembly passed resolutions that: requested the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to undertake an urgent revision of ISO/IEC Guide 43 which provides guidance for PT programs, endorsed the use of Guide 43 and ILAC G13 as base criteria for the accreditation of PT Providers, and endorsed the immediate review of ILAC G13 which is now well underway. And in May 2006, the ILAC PT Consultative Group will convene its second full meeting.

PT frequency for testing labs is one of the issues being reviewed; there is currently a wide span of guidance from “once every four years” to “2 to 10 rounds per year”.

Proficiency testing has never received this amount of international attention, and everyone is encouraged to get involved in the discussions so that you are not left wondering “who changed the rules?”.

Analytical laboratories that are accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 and that participate in appropriate proficiency testing programs are known to produce better quality data than laboratories that do not avail themselves of these programs. Regulators in Canada have acknowledged this fact by including the requirement for proficiency testing and/or accreditation in recent legislation. A major sector of analytical testing, however, has been largely ignored. Most small utilities will use operators to perform simple analytical tests in support of the treatment process (drinking water or wastewater treatment). These include tests such as chlorine, turbidity, phosphate, pH, and others. In most provinces, operator certification is the only tool available to assure the quality of this testing. Given that this testing is critical to the monitoring and optimization of the treatment process, a much greater level of quality assurance is warranted.

Alberta Environment, through contracts with CAEAL and Maxxam Analytics, is implementing a quality assurance program that is unique in that it applies the concepts of proficiency testing and accreditation to process testing. Proficiency testing, and how it will be applied to the process testing sector, will be described.

This update was provided as part of an information session that included presentations by the Ontario Ministry of Environment and the Standards Council of Canada. As of this date, CAEAL has accredited 144 laboratories and another 27 are applicants. 45% of the labs in the accreditation stream fit CAEAL’s “small lab” category with lower fees. With the recent addition of 94 labs in the Alberta Alternate Program, a total of 463 laboratories are served by CAEAL programs. CAEAL was voted in as a Full Member of the Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation in March 2005, and has applied for a full evaluation against ISO/IEC 17011.

This presentation gives an overview of accreditation, the MOE/SCC/CAEAL Agreement for the Accreditation of Drinking-Water Testing Laboratories, and anticipated changes in 2005.

An overview of environmental laboratory accreditation in Canada. What is involved, what are the benefits, what is the cost? Current status by province, and overall trends, are reviewed.

This overview explains how the Alberta accreditation policy is being implemented. At the time of the presentation, 38 environmental laboratories had been accredited to ISO/IEC 17025, and about 640 laboratories were projected to participate in the Alberta Alternate Program.

A number of questions had been raised about the data evaluation methods used in the CAEAL proficiency testing program. This paper uses the results of one round (March 2002) to compare the normal statistical treatment (2 standard deviations) with a linear "precision function", and it compares some of the CAEAL results and mechanisms with those from Québec and the US NELAC program.

A number of significant changes have taken place in the CAEAL PT Program over the course of the year. Lab participation continues to increase at a phenomenal rate. This year has seen the addition of 30% new parameters and a number of new policies have been introduced. There have also been major changes to occupational health and toxicology testing. Goals for the current year include the addition of some new parameters, including PHC's in soil (a description of which is provided).

The SCC/CAEAL joint program for laboratory accreditation includes 96 labs that have either been accredited or have applied for accreditation of microbiology testing, and a total of 126 labs participate in CAEAL's microbiology proficiency testing. The program's pool of 100 lab assessors includes 32 who have microbiology expertise.

The CAEAL proficiency testing program offers an opportunity to compare performance of accredited and non-accredited environmental laboratories. Two sets of data were selected covering the periods 1994-96 and 1997-99 for five parameters. Accredited labs achieved higher mean scores, a greater number of perfect scores and fewer unsatisfactory scores.