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).
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: 2009 TNI
Section: V1M5, Section 1.7.3.5 (c)
REQUEST:
The lab conducts SM9020a testing on potable water only. We purchase single use sterile water from IDEXX who also manufactures the Colilert media. It is their recommendation to use sterile water in blanks and dilutions. This is the only use our lab has for sterile water as everything else is prepackaged ready to use. The sterile water comes in sealed 100ml aliquots with reagent water criteria certification from IDEXX. The water is purchased in lots and the lot is verified upon receipt for pH, conductance and sterility. It is stored in a refrigerator at 4C. The lab is small and only conducts 20 tests per month. Is the in house QA and manufacture certification of the sterile water sufficient for the use of the water as a lot per TNI standards - or should it be conform to predisposed buffer water standards?
TNI FINAL RESPONSE:
(Microbiology Expert Committee and NELAP AC, 9-23-15)
Under the current standard, the requirement is to check the purchased water once per lot and, in addition, once per month when using a bottle that lasts longer than one month. If the water is to be used for preparation of media, reagents or as a diluent, which will put it in contact with microorganisms, then the requirements of verification as stated in EL-V1M5-2009 1.7.3.5(c) are needed along with the verification of sterility.