Quality assurance bioassays

As part of this field study, relevant quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) criteria and guidelines (SETAC, 1993 JAMP, 1998a,b) have to be set to insure the quality of data generated during the assessments. The development of QA/QC criteria for this study involved conducting a series of replicate bioassays with each of the methods. Samples tested included a control sediment, contaminated sediments and reference toxicants. Based on the results of the bioassay replicates, the variability associated with the tests was quantified and we were able to determine what we considered acceptable QA/QC criteria for these methods. 

Inspectors and quality assurance personnel should routinely ask to see the chemical analyses or residue analyses performed on each lot of test organisms used in bioassays that were reported to the Agency. 

The project proponent is responsible for tlie quality assurance review of data generated in any sediment investigation. There are two levels of quality assurance review applicable for sediment data. On the first level a review of bioassay data covers field and reporting elements and evaluates the acceptability of test results for positive controls, negative controls, reference sediment, replicates and experimental conditions (temperature, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen). Detailed guidance on review procedures is available from Ecology (2003). 

Brown MRW, GUbert P (1995) Microbiological quality assurance screening and bioassay a guide towards relevance and reproducibility of inocula. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL... 

---