Accreditation, of laboratory

The similar matters are observed in accreditation of laboratories using penetrant method. 

All procedures performed in this study conform to the "Guide to the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals published by the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. All research facilities are accredited by the American Association for Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care. 

The AMFC Directive requires that food control laboratories should be accredited to the EN 45000 series of standards as supplemented by some of the OECD GLP principles. In the UK, government departments have nominated the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) to carry out the accreditation of official food control laboratories for all the aspects prescribed in the Directive. However, as the accreditation agency will also be required to comply with the EN 45003 Standard and to carry out assessments in accordance with the EN 45002 Standard, all accreditation agencies that are members of the European Cooperation for Accreditation of Laboratories (EA) may be asked to carry out the accreditation of a food control laboratory within the UK. Similar procedures will be followed in the other Member States, all having or developing equivalent organisations to UKAS. Details of the UK requirements for food control laboratories are described later in this chapter. 

Addresses the technical competence of laboratories to carry out specific tests and Is used worldwide by laboratory accreditation bodies as the core requirement for the accreditation of laboratories... 

The principles of Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) in conjunction with the principles of Total Quality Management (see chapter 6) ensure the quality and reliability of the laboratory results, which in turn help to ensure the protection of the environment and human health and safety. A step further is the accreditation of laboratories to ISO 17025 (see chapter 2) to perform specified activities. 

European Cooperation for Accreditation of Laboratories (EAL) (1996), The Expression of Uncertainty in Quantitative Testing, EAL-G23, The Netherlands. 

Certified reference materials (CRMs) should be used to ensure comparability of results, traceability of measurements at different levels in the traceability chain and support implementation of legislation, standardization programmes, research programmes, accreditation of laboratories and industrial production processes [1]. 

In addition, the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) provides guidelines for animal care and use, operates a certification program for animal technicians, and develops educational materials. The AALAS also serves as a scientific forum for laboratory medicine and care. The American Association for the Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) offers a peer review laboratory accreditation program for research facilities. In addition, the FDA and the EPA have Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) regulations. 

Proper care of laboratory animals used in research is a basic requirement to assure the validity and reproducibility of the results obtained. Animals used in drug research are subject to the strictest standards of care beginning with the animal supplier. For the most commonly used laboratory animals, these standards of care often apply for the entire life of the animal. Guidelines for proper care of research animals are provided by the Department of Health and Human Services. The American Association for the Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care provides the service of certifying laboratories complying with those guidelines. All reputable industrial drug development houses strive to achieve and maintain certification by the association. 

American Association for Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC)... 

In many countries undertaking the most technically demanding analyses, it is expected that the laboratories will be registered under quality assurance schemes. Accuracy and repeatability should be covered by quality assurance requirements, but resolution and detection limits are critically dependent on technique and instrumentation. Details on the general subjects of quality assurance/quality control, quantification of uncertainty in analytical measurements, accreditation of laboratories, and on the general concepts and strategy for ensuring that analytical chemical measurements are comparable - in one word traceability - can be found elsewhere in the chemical literature (26,32-36). 

If new test methods combined with new instrumentation are introduced into a laboratory they should, self-evidently, be state of the art. On the other hand, if minor modifications occur in existing methods, obviously there will be less parameters to be validated. Therefore, the validation process should be defined and well-planned in all cases. The European co-operation for Accreditation of Laboratories (EAL) has provided general guidelines on certain issues related to the validation of test methods [8], According to paragraph 2.1.3, the required depth of the validation process depends on the maturity of the test method and the prevalence of its use. A standardised test method is exclusively defined by EAL. This interpretation can easily be applied to the medical laboratory field and has been discussed [9] in terms of additionally needed clarification in the new ISO/IEC 17025 standard [10]. Paragraph 5.4.5 states that the validation shall be as extensive as is necessary to meet the needs of the given application or field of application. 

Permanent Liaison Group between EAL (European co-operation for Accreditation of Laboratories) and EUROLAB... 

Eurachem (1996) Accreditation for laboratories performing microbiological testing. European cooperation for accreditation of laboratories. EAL-G18. Eurachem... 

Accreditation of laboratories following rules established by the ISO 17025 contributes to the overall framework contributing to the achievement of traceability, but it is only an organizational framework and as such does not guarantee the achievement of traceability. Rather it requests laboratories to proceed with internal and external QC of analytical methods as described in the preceding paragraphs. 

Accreditation of laboratories is recognised today as an important tool of the quality management of a laboratory performing chemical measurements under the Water Framework Directive. 

One of the responsibilities of UKAS is the accreditation of laboratories to issue NAMAS (National Accreditation of Measurement and Sampling) certificates and reports. 

Accreditation and Good Laboratory Practice Accreditation of Laboratories... 

EAL-G12 (1995) Traceability of measuring and test equipment to national standards. European cooperation for accreditation of laboratories, 1st edn, Nov 1995. www.european-accreditation.org/n 1/doc/EA-4-07.pdf. Accessed 4 Feb 2013... 

ISO 17025, General Requirements for Accreditation of Laboratories, International Organization for Standardization, American National Standards Institute, New York, (1999). 

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