Case Study
Canadian province requires laboratories to be accredited to carry out environmental testing
In the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Department of Environment and Conservation has stipulated that any laboratories that provide proficiency testing and environmental data to their department must be have a ‘Recognized Form of Laboratory Accreditation’. This means Accreditation obtained from an accreditation body that is a signatory to the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) Agreement and based on ISO/IEC 17025.
The policies state ‘The Department of Environment & Conservation shall contract only those commercial laboratories which have a recognized form of laboratory accreditation to perform the required’ and ‘The Department of Environment & Conservation shall contract only those commercial laboratories which have a recognized form of laboratory accreditation to perform the required analyses (except in limited instances). This has been done ‘to ensure that environmental information produced by and provided to the Province is comparable, of known quality, and adequate for its intended purpose’. (Canada)
