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California’s Withdrawal From NELAP: Causes, Effect and Solution
Oral Presentation
Prepared by B. Godfrey
Curtis & Tompkins Laboratories, 2323 5th Street, Berkeley, CA, 94710, United States
Contact Information: bruce.godfrey@ctberk.com;
ABSTRACT
Laboratory accreditation services performed by appropriately recognized Accrediting Bodies (AB) are essential to the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (NELAP). In January 2014, rather than be dropped from NELAP by the NELAC Institute (TNI, www.nelac-institute.org) for failing to make or implement any plan to correct their long term substandard AB performance, California (CA) voluntarily withdrew from its role as a NELAP AB. The author will present the facts behind CA’s decision to withdraw from NELAP and the effects on commercial laboratories inside and outside of CA. The author will also review the effects of CA’s withdrawal on NELAP and the commercial laboratory community’s perceptions of the importance of adding appropriately recognized private sector AB’s to the remaining governmental AB’s that currently comprise NELAP.
Commercial laboratories represented by ACIL, the national trade association for independent scientific organizations (www.acil.org), place a high value on NELAP, and they are justifiably concerned about NELAP’s future. ACIL laboratories support conformity assessments performed by appropriately recognized ISO/IEC 17011 compliant AB’s as a means to both improve their quality management systems and reduce the costs imposed by multiple redundant accreditation schemes and nonperforming governmental AB’s. In 2013, TNI initiated a process toward recognizing nongovernmental AB’s to perform NELAP accreditation services. The author will present the basis for ACIL laboratories support for TNI’s recognition of nongovernmental AB’s for he provision of NELAP AB services in the context of CA’s withdrawal from NELAP.
Oral Presentation
Prepared by B. Godfrey
Curtis & Tompkins Laboratories, 2323 5th Street, Berkeley, CA, 94710, United States
Contact Information: bruce.godfrey@ctberk.com;
ABSTRACT
Laboratory accreditation services performed by appropriately recognized Accrediting Bodies (AB) are essential to the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (NELAP). In January 2014, rather than be dropped from NELAP by the NELAC Institute (TNI, www.nelac-institute.org) for failing to make or implement any plan to correct their long term substandard AB performance, California (CA) voluntarily withdrew from its role as a NELAP AB. The author will present the facts behind CA’s decision to withdraw from NELAP and the effects on commercial laboratories inside and outside of CA. The author will also review the effects of CA’s withdrawal on NELAP and the commercial laboratory community’s perceptions of the importance of adding appropriately recognized private sector AB’s to the remaining governmental AB’s that currently comprise NELAP.
Commercial laboratories represented by ACIL, the national trade association for independent scientific organizations (www.acil.org), place a high value on NELAP, and they are justifiably concerned about NELAP’s future. ACIL laboratories support conformity assessments performed by appropriately recognized ISO/IEC 17011 compliant AB’s as a means to both improve their quality management systems and reduce the costs imposed by multiple redundant accreditation schemes and nonperforming governmental AB’s. In 2013, TNI initiated a process toward recognizing nongovernmental AB’s to perform NELAP accreditation services. The author will present the basis for ACIL laboratories support for TNI’s recognition of nongovernmental AB’s for he provision of NELAP AB services in the context of CA’s withdrawal from NELAP.