Finally, a nationally accepted standard for labs

The National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Conference (NELAC), a cooperative association of States and Federal Agencies, was formed to establish and promote mutually acceptable performance standards for the operation of environmental lab. The standards cover both testing of environmental samples and laboratory accreditation. The goal of NELAC is to foster the generation of environmental laboratory data of known and acceptable quality on which to base public health and environmental management decisions.

The National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (NELAP) is the program that implements the NELAC standards. States and Federal agencies serve as Accrediting Authorities with coordination facilitated by EPA to assure uniformity. Accreditation by one NELAP Accrediting Authority is mutually recognized by the other State and Federal Accrediting Authorities approved under NELAP.

All States currently have accreditation programs for environmental labs, but these State programs vary widely in scope and requirements. Some States have only drinking water lab accreditation; while a few accredit labs for drinking water, waste water, air, and solid and hazardous waste. Currently, in order to select a lab to test samples from a given location, it is first necessary to determine whether there is an applicable State accrediting program, obtain a list of accredited laboratories, and contact accredited labs to determine if they are able to perform the testing.

Labs accredited under a NELAP-recognized accrediting authority are entered into a national database. Reciprocity is one of the fundamental principles of NELAC. Once a lab is accredited by one State for testing under a specific EPA program, it can be accredited in another State for that EPA program without having to meet additional accreditation requirements. 

Quality control is not the whole answer to assuring acceptable data quality! Even though existing EPA, OSHA and ASTM test methods contain quality control specifications, they do not guarantee you will receive quality data from every lab that utilizes the methods. NELAC specifies a standardized quality system, including

• requirements for management qualifications; 

• documentation of policies and procedures; 

• calibration and maintenance of equipment; 

• quality control;

• qualifications and training of personnel;

• maintaining sample integrity;

• management of audit findings, corrective actions, customer complaints, records, supplies and subcontracting; and,

• review of the entire system by management to ensure that it is performing as expected.

The ability of labs to demonstrate their competence becomes most important as EPA moves toward a Performance Based Measurement System, in which the burden of proof of the applicability and quality of testing lies primarily with the laboratory. By including such quality system requirements, NELAC is building a foundation to assure that future environmental data are traceable, reproducible, and of known quality. This will facilitate interpretation of results, and will minimize the risk of making decisions based on data of doubtful authenticity.

Believe it or not, NELAC Accreditation means lower testing costs. Besides the expected savings in accreditation costs, Trinity has found that a well-run quality system lowers the ‘cost of quality’ by emphasizing activities that assess quality and prevent problems, while reducing costs associated with failure, such as re-testing, re-sampling, downtime, loss of accreditation, and customer dissatisfaction (lost business). As a result, services provided by Trinity’s NELAP-accredited lab can provide higher value and improved cost-effectiveness compared to the industry norm, non-NELAP lab.

Want to learn more about NELAP? Point your Web Browser to http://www.epa.gov/ttn/nelac where you can find a variety of resources, including copies of the NELAC standards and a list of the approved Accrediting Authorities.