Laboratory quality systems proficiency testing

Before the designation, the laboratories developed their laboratory methods for testing, constructed and made operational their laboratory quality system and obtained its accreditation, and continued the participation and successful performance in the OPCW proficiency tests (PT). Analytical methods in particular and a certain level of quality assurance systems have existed in the laboratories, involved often in research, well before their designation. Participation in the international interlaboratory... 

A broad range of technical requirements is important in a laboratory quality system. These include aspects such as the selection of appropriately qualified and experienced personnel sampling, sample handling and preparation laboratory accommodation and environmental conditions equipment and reagents calibration reference standards and reference materials traceability (of standards and of samples) the selection or development, validation, and control of methods estimation of the uncertainty of measurements reporting of results and quality control and proficiency testing. 

Laboratory quality systems and related quality activities such as participation in proficiency-testing programs are being adopted increasingly. They have existed in the United Kingdom, certain other Western European nations, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States for many years. They are coming into increasing use in India and the Far East, South Africa, and Eastern Europe. 

Traditionally, the education that chemists and chemistry laboratory technicians receive in colleges and universities does not prepare them adequately for some important aspects of the real world of work in their chosen field. Today s industrial laboratory analyst is deeply involved with such job issues as quality control, quality assurance, ISO 9000, standard operating procedures, calibration, standard reference materials, statistical control, control charts, proficiency testing, validation, system suitability, chain of custody, good laboratory practices, protocol, and audits. Yet, most of these terms are foreign to the college graduate and the new employee. 

One other development in support of analytical data quality must be mentioned, namely the use of round robin analysis, which has developed into a number of laboratory performance assessment programs, and also known as proficiency-testing schemes. A proficiency-testing scheme does not eliminate the need for a quality system. In fact, the scheme can at best provide only a snapshot of how a laboratory was performing on particular analyses on one occasion. Moreover, such schemes still exist only for a fairly limited range of sample and analyte combinations. 

It is common that commercial calorimeters have internal, automatic calibration. Although this makes a calorimeter user friendly, it is problematic if the user does not know whether the calibrations are accurate. One way to check whether the instrument is working properly and whether the user is performing the measurement in a correct way is to run a validation procedure, i.e. an experiment with a known outcome (proficiency test). A number of such chemical calibration systems are described by Wadso and Goldberg (2001) however, none is similar to cement hydration measurements. It is therefore of interest to establish reference cements - or other similar systems, for example, based on calcium hemihydrate - that can be used to validate the quality of calorimetric cement measurements in a laboratory. 

---