Production and use of reference materials for environmental analyses: conclusions of a workshop

Reference materials (RMs) play a vital role for the verification of the quality control of environmental analysis. The increasing requirements imposed to environmental control laboratories call for greater co-operation among RM producers and end-users to better define future production strategies. It is recognised that the present system is unlikely to be able to cope with the increasing demand for certified and non-certified RMs within the forthcoming years. These issues were discussed in the framework of a workshop funded by the M&T programme of the European Commission, which brought together RM producers, certification experts and end-users. This report summarises the round-table discussions and expert recommendations. (C)2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.