European Union laboratories

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. 

Badia R, de la Torre R, Corcione S, Segura J. Analytical approaches of European Union laboratories to drugs of abuse analysis. Clin Chem 1998 44 790-99. 

For example, in order to meet the demanding requirements of legislation such as the European Union (EU) Baby Food Directive (Directive 95/5/EC and subsequent revisions), analysts must improve on the scope and sensitivity of multiresidue methods of analysis. This Baby Food Directive, which became effective on 1 July 2002, limits residues of all pesticides to a maximum level of 0.01 mgkg There will also be a banned list of pesticides, annexed to the Directive, which will not permit the use of certain pesticides on crops intended for use in baby food production. As a consequence, food manufacturers often require residue results for raw or primary ingredients within 24 8 h of sample receipt at the laboratory. 

STEVENS URETHANE UK,DEPT.OF TRADE IND. UK,LABORATORY OF THE GOVERNMENT CHEMIST SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE ON TOXICITY,ECOTOXICITY ENVIRONMENT AMERICAN COUNCIL ON SCIENCE HEALTH EUROPEAN COMMISSION TNO PLASTICS RUBBER RESEARCH INSTITUTE DENMARK EU EUROPEAN COMMUNITY EUROPEAN UNION FRANCE NETHERLANDS SCANDINAVIA UK USA WESTERN EUROPE WESTERN EUROPE-GENERAL... 

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 22 papers of the symposium [1] were presented under the headings Theory, Laboratory Studies, Calorimetry (2 sessions), Applications. Several papers are devoted to individual instrumental methods of measuring and assessing potential for exothermic runaway reactions to develop. An issue of the Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries is devoted to a variety of, mostly calorimetric, studies of runaway reactions [2], The proceedings of a European Union Seminar in 1994 appear as a book, including hard data as well as debate about such matters as operator training [3],... 

Compliance with the GLP principles covers many aspects of accreditation to ISO 17025. The European Union has adopted the procedures for Good Laboratory Practice of the Organization for the Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and calls on member states to take all measures necessary to ensure that laboratories carrying out tests on chemical products comply with the GLP principles. The OECD s GLP principles are part of the Eiuopean Commission Directive 2004/10/EC (http //eur-lex. europa.eu). 

In recent years Chile has fallen foul of both the United States (because a grape crop allegedly contained cyanide De Bievre 1993) and the European Union (because shrimp that contained cadmium below the limit of defensible detection was rejected), and each time Chile suffered losses in the millions of dollars. In a survey of users of analytical chemical results, the Laboratory of the Government Chemist (LGC) in the United Kingdom found that 29% of the respondents to a survey had suffered loss as a result of poor analytical chemistry, and 12% of these claimed very serious losses (King 1995). 

To oversee this surveillance, the European Union has developed a system based on four fundamental cornerstones and controlled by four Community Reference Laboratories (Decision 91/664/EEC) hierarchically linked to a series of 36 authorized National Laboratories (Decision 93/257/EEC). The four cornerstones are a program of reference materials (53), a set of regularly updated mandatory minimum quality criteria for analytical techniques (54-57), a series of Reference Manuals (58, 59), and a continuous series of laboratory workshops plus a future Peer Review Group (60). 

Even using uncertainty factors, the problem of determining the reliability of qualitative methods has not be solved because the usual statistical approaches are often not applicable. In residue analysis, this problem is often amplified because concenftations frequently are in the low or even sub-ppb range. Most promising appears to be a model that helps in estimating, in arbitrary units, the overall selectivity of an analytical method on the basis of partial selectivity indices. Selectivity indices are nothing more than a combination of the above-mentioned tools with the experience obtained within the European Union from recognized laboratory experts (26). 

According to the 1990-93 CAREX database for 15 countries of the European Union (Kauppinen et al., 1998) and the 1981-83 United States National Occupational Exposure Survey (NOES, 1997), approximately 70 000 workers in Europe and as many as 100 000 workers in the United States were potentially exposed to carbon tetrachloride (see General Remarks). Occupational exposure to carbon tetrachloride may occur in the chemical industry, in laboratories, and during degreasing operations. 

EU = European Union USABC = United States Battery Advanced Consortium IREQ = Hydro-Quebec ANL = Argonne National Laboratory EDF = Electricity de France LIBES = Lithium Battery Energy Storage Technology Research Association,... 

The FDA has, so far, refused to lift the ban on cyclamate, despite several petitions from Abbot Laboratories. Cyclamate is permitted in the European Union and came back into use in the United Kingdom via the harmonised EU Sweetener Regulations 1991. Use of cyclamate in the UK soft drinks industry is almost non-existent 10 years after its re-approval. 

Acknowledgements The laboratory work of the authors is supported by research grants from Fundagao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT), Gulbenkian Foundation, PRIN-MIUR Ministero dell Istruzione, dell Universita e della Ricerca, Ente Cassa di Risparmio, Firenze, Italy and European Union (COST B30). 

The authors aim to provide an up-to-date report on the state of the field. Our main scientific activity involves structural and dynamic studies of paramagnetic metalloproteins, in a Research center at the University of Florence. The laboratory is a NMR Research Infrastructure resource supported by the European Union to perform a European service. We are thus exposed to the needs of the scientific community, and have responded to them in several ways, from the development of new instruments or part of them to the description of new phenomena and development of new software. Since 1985, together with colleagues from the Universities of Pisa and Siena, we have organized nine Chianti Workshops on Electron and Nuclear Relaxation, a series of conferences well known to the scientific community in the field. 

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