PREPARATION STEPS FOR ACCREDITATION IN THE FIELD OF PCDD/F EMISSION SAMPLING IN A RESEARCH FACILITY

Introduction

An accreditation according to standard DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025 (1) provides a laboratory with a guarantee of the quality of its measurements; for a customer (e.g.an external client from private companies, the German authorities or within the framework of co-operations), it demonstrates the competence of this testing laboratory to carry out specific tests.

To obtain an accreditation, a Quality System has to be established which meets the requirements of the Standard EN ISO/IEC 17025. In the field of emission sampling, the compliance to the requirements §5.7 of ISO 17025 is not sufficient to get the accreditation in Germany. Additional specific standards have to be satisfied, such as VDI 4220 (2). VDI 4220, a technical rule from Kommission Reinhaltung der Luft (Germany), views on technical requirements for emissions and immissions testing laboratories and concerns the criteria competence/personnel, premises/equipment and working procedures. An accreditation body (e.g. DAR, DACh or DAP in Germany) is charged to control this Quality System of the lab and delivers a certificate (accreditation) if the requirements are satisfied.

In the following paper, the activity in our research facilities in the field emission sampling will  be first explained. Secondly the implementation of our quality system, also our experienced will be exposed.