2. Quality assurance for chemical analysis
2.1 A necessary collaboration
The best way to make progress in a particular area of analytical science is to collaborate with colleagues working in related fields. By exchanging knowledge, many difficulties encountered can be solved and improvements achieved. The dissemination of information through literature, seminars or international conferences, and the exchange of ideas at meetings, are important but insufficient to significantly improve the state of the art in a given analytical sector. As a result, in parallel with the "classical" transfer of knowledge, many analysts have started to exchange samples, standards and reference materials to test their techniques. This approach has been systematically structured by bodies such as the BCR (Bureau Communautaire de Référence, European...
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Quality assurance for chemical analysis
Reference and certified materials
Bibliography
References
Trade magazines
Strictly speaking, there are no specialized journals dealing solely with reference materials. Information is regularly published in the main scientific journals dealing with fundamental or applied analytical chemistry. A reference work written by the authors of this article (dealing essentially with interlaboratory tests and reference materials for environmental analysis) was published by Elsevier in 1999
Producers of reference materials
There are over 150 producers of reference materials worldwide. Information on their products can be obtained via the COMAR database available from the Laboratoire National d'Essais. It should be noted that in the absence of mandatory production quality criteria, in particular accreditation, it is difficult to assess the quality of all materials available on the market. Among the major producers are two...
Standardization
- Normes pour le management de la qualité et l'assurance de la qualité. Partie 1 : Lignes directrices pour leur sélection et utilisation. - ISO 9000-1 - 1994
- Normes pour le management de la qualité et l'assurance de la qualité. Partie 2 : Lignes directrices génériques pour l'application de l'ISO 9001, l'ISO 9002 et l'ISO 9003. - ISO 9000-2 - 1997
- Normes pour le management de la qualité et l'assurance de la...
Economic data
Material prices obviously vary according to the nature and complexity of the certified matrices. A few grams of pure materials (e.g. alloys) cost between 60 and 200 euros; the price of ampoules of materials for clinical analysis (e.g. serum, blood) can be in the same range, while matrix materials (e.g. residual sludge, sediments, etc.) can cost up to 300 euros per unit. These cost differences are obviously linked to production...
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