Interpretation of Organic Data

The EPA is saying that they're ready to move to a Performance Based Measurement System (PBMS) philosophy. Is your lab's QA/QC ready?

The analysis of environmental samples must contend with variability. The key to consistent defendable results is understanding and controlling that variability. That is the underlying principle behind any QA/QC program. The PBMS philosophy makes it your responsibility to understand, monitor, and control the elements that may effect a good analysis. If you can do that, then you can be confident that the results you present actually show what was in the environmental sample.

In this new book, Dr. Roy-Keith Smith takes you back to the principles of quality assurance and quality control and applies them to the analysis of environmental samples. Starting with sample preparation, he proceeds through instrument preparation and calibration, then to instrument performance, and finally to the actual presentation of the results. Along the way he makes sure that you understand and consider the important factors that might affect results such as matrix interference and laboratory contamination.

For the readers that work in a laboratory, this book focuses your thinking about how you conduct analysis and guides you toward establishing an appropriate framework within which to conduct your work. It accomplishes this by concentrating on why the quality control is performed. For final users of data, this book provides you with the fundamental understanding necessary to follow what went on in the laboratory with your sample.