Mis-Use and Other Causes of Errors

Despite all that has been written about the requirements of carefully performed analytical quality control including the usage of CRMs, there are still many laboratories that either have neither proper internal QC nor CRMs, or perhaps do not want to admit to using them  

Many more common problems start because the new users do not really understand their analytical systems, a problem described as the Nintendo scientist syndrome by Jenks (1995). Inexperienced scientists are often not sufficiently discriminating in their selection and use of CRMs. But incorrect choice can also be due to the unavailability of suitable matched matrix CRMs, or surprisingly often because the laboratory believes it cannot aftbrd the ideal product. 

We have described a selection of uses of CRMs in Chapters 4, 5, and 6. There are copious additional references in the literature, as we explain in Chapter 8. But most of these references do not explain how the CRM was used, only why. The authors assmne that the reader knows how to use a CRM. We have discovered from a number of years experience in advising on the use of CRMs that the same mistakes and mis-imderstandings occur time and time again. The main causes of error can be conveniently grouped together, as follows  

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