develop consensus standards for use by TNI's programs. This group has a support role in assisting other programs with activities such as guidance and standards interpretation.
fosters the generation of data of known and documented quality is through the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program, or NELAP. The purpose of this program is to establish and implement a program for the accreditation of environmental laboratories.
is to establish and maintain a national PT program to support TNI’s National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program, and other activities.
Field Activities Program (NEFAP) Executive Committee is to establish and implement an accreditation program for field sampling and measurement organizations (FSMOs).
Audit Sample Program is to develop consensus standards for the manufacture and analysis of audit samples for source emission testing.
on a variety of topics of interest to the environmental measurement community. TNI also hosts two regularly scheduled meetings per year, typically in January and August. Both are a week long and involve open meetings of TNI committees as well as training courses and other special sessions.Standard Interpretation
Standard: 2003 NELAC
Section: 5.5.6.3.1
Link to relevant standard
REQUEST:
I'm trying to determine if NELAC requires that the weight sets used to verify balances prior to use MUST be Class 1.
TNI FINAL RESPONSE:
(Quality System Expert Committee/NELAP Accreditation Council, 3-x-11)
A laboratory may use any class to verify the balance if the weights are traceable to a national standard.
A Class 1 (or "S") weight is normally considered a reference standard, but may be used as a working standard. If the laboratory has designated the weight as a reference standard, the weight may only be used for calibration (i.e. calibrating/checking working standards).
Standards that are used for daily calibrations (5.5.5.2.1) must be traceable to NIST. The Class1 or “S” weights can be used to verify the working standards, since these are traceable to NIST.