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Newsletter: October 1999 This is a brief update regarding the activities and progress for the Analytical Laboratory Technical Committee (ALTC) of the American Society for Quality Energy and Environmental Division. It is sent to those who responded to earlier mailings, who wish to remain informed about and/or participate in the activities of the ALTC. Please send me an e-mail: If you no longer wish to be on the e-mailing list. If you want to actively participate in one of the topical areas. If you just want to read the e-mailings and know what we are doing. Conferences 1: I'll attend (and hope to see you there!) the American Society for Quality Energy and Environmental Division's San Antonio conference, October 4-6, 1999. The theme is "Best Practices" for the Energy Industry, and the Analytical Laboratory session will be in the Government track of the program. Chuck Wibby, Ann Rosecrance, and Timothy Dawson are presenting papers at the ALTC session October 6. (The ethics topics are timely--See the current issue of Quality Progress Magazine for a feature article about ethics.) You can find out more about the conference at the Division Website, http://www.envnet.org/asq/eed, then click on "Calendar" and "Upcoming Conferences." The proceedings will be released on disk. E-mail me to request an electronic copy of the papers. Conferences 2: On September 28, I attended the Fifth Annual Good Laboratory Practices Technical Conference, sponsored by the Virginia section of the American Water Works Association and the Virginia Water Environment Association, Inc. I'll have my summary report of the sessions from the conference available electronically for you, just e-mail your request. An update of Virginia's NELAC accreditation status was provided, as well as information about new USEPA Office of Water methods. Technical papers on internal QA audits, laboratory facilities and work processes, and employee evaluations were presented. Conferences 3: The ALTC will sponsor a session at the ASQ-EED's ISO conference, named MSI2000, in February, 2000 in Las Vegas. Our session will present the changes from the old ISO 25 to the new ISO 17025, and the practical aspects and impacts on the labs. It will be a very effective tutorial. Remember, NELAC uses ISO 25 as a foundation for its policies and procedures, and plans to adopt ISO 17025 after passage; many labs will be affected. Contact me if you are interested in ISO 17025 and this session. PBMS Articles: I'm preparing a paper for the PBMS Spotlight column in the November/December Environmental Testing and Analysis magazine that summarizes the PBMS sessions from July's Waste Testing and Quality Assurance symposium. This should be available electronically for your request by November. Dr. Carl Kircher is preparing an article for ET&A, presenting a state's (Florida) perspective on PBMS issues. This should also appear in the November/December issue. Dr. Kircher is actively involved as a Board Member of NELAC, and welcomes your input on lab accreditation and PBMS topics. You can get the latest news at the NELAC Website, http://www.epa.gov/ttn/nelac. The constitution, bylaws, standards, Board members, meeting summaries, proposed revisions, and archives are at the site. Container Cleanliness Concerns: How clean are the sample containers that are provided for field collection? How are the containers cleaned by the vendor? How is cleanliness verified in-house, and by the labs and other customers who purchase the containers? Should there be some "accreditation" of vendor labs that test their own products, but not any environmental samples, to verify the accuracy of their claims? In response to a committee member's concerns, I made a few calls and found most labs have some form of incoming QC tests on bottle lots. What are your opinions on the subject--Let the buyers beware? Add this to NELAC's menu? Send me your e-mails please. If you have news items of interest that you think will benefit our readers, please send them to me. These could include reports from other conferences or professional society meetings, lab industry changes, quality success stories, lessons learned, and helpful tips. I'll edit and issue monthly newsletters on these topics, and report our activities and progress. Several volunteers have offered to lead and help with subcommittees. Contact them (and copy me) to join us:PBMS and NELAC: Dr. Carl C. Kircher, Florida Dept. of Health, e-mail to: carl_kircher@doh.state.fl.us Others interested in this topic include Marlene Moore, mmoore@advancedsys.com; Ruth Change, rchang@ix.netcom.com; and Bart Simmons, bsimmons@dtsc.ca.gov Ethics: Timothy L. Dawson, USEPA Region
VI, e-mail to: dawson.timothy@epamail.epa.gov Others interested in this
topic include Ann Rosecrance, annrosecrance@corelabcorp.com; Bernard
Godek, bjgodek@uxb.com; and Jack Farrell, aex@ix.netcom.com.
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