European Union interlaboratory

The present chapter discusses the results of a series of three small-scale interlaboratory exercises performed within the framework of the European Union-funded PRISTINE project (ENV4-CT97-0494), employing HPLC-fluorescence (FL) and LC-MS techniques for the determination of ionic and non-ionic surfactants. 

Seven laboratories participated in the interlaboratory evaluation within the framework of the PRISTINE, SANDRINE and INEXsPORT European Union Projects [6]. The results obtained for the analysis of diverse classes of surfactants by different analytical methods are listed in Table 4.5.1. The analytical strategies were based on LC coupled to either MS or FL detection in all cases with the exception of one laboratory using a test tube ELISA kit. Samples were spiked with the surfactants NPEO, CDEA, LAS, AEO, NPEO-SO4 and SAS. 

The organizer of an interlaboratory study to assign a quantity value to a reference material is usually a national or international certifying authority, such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (United Nations), the Community Bureau of Reference (European Union), or a national measurement institute. 

In a farsighted move in 1989, the European Union laboratory IRMM started a series of interlaboratory comparisons to provide objective evidence for the degree of equivalence and the quality of chemical measurements by comparing a participant s measurement results with external certified reference values (IRMM 2006). At the time most proficiency testing schemes used consensus results for the mean and standard deviation to derive z scores. With the IMEP-1 analysis of lithium in serum, the world was alerted to the problem of lack of accuracy in analytical measurements. The data of the first IMEP-1 trial are replotted in figure 5.6 notice that the apparent outlier was the only laboratory to come close to the assigned value. 

Interlaboratory studies carried out by consortia of European laboratories, of which the aim is improve the state-of-the-art of different types of measurements [7], These projects are useful to detect possible sources of errors related to particular techniques, to create networks of laboratories within the European Union and to prepare groups of expert laboratories for the certification of reference materials... 

In 2006, an interlaboratory exercise was organized by the Community Reference Laboratory for Marine Biotoxins (CRLMB) to evaluate its fitness for purpose for the Official Control of PSP toxins in the EU laboratories [41]. Eighteen European Union (EU) laboratories took part in the study. The participants had to analyze six bivalve mollusks samples with various PSP toxic profiles. The performance of the participant laboratories in the application of the 2005.06 AOAC Official... 

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