A2LA Today l March 2017 l Number 134
By Chris Gunning, A2LA Accreditation Manager
A2LA is proud to announce that it has received recognition as a non-governmental accreditation body (NGAB) from The NELAC Institute (TNI) for accrediting environmental laboratories, using ISO/IEC 17025 and the TNI standard. The National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (NELAP) typically utilizes state accreditation bodies to evaluate and accredit environmental testing laboratories. Recognition as an NGAB identifies A2LA as being equivalent to the state accreditation bodies and confirms that A2LA has demonstrated capability to ensure laboratories’ competence to provide accurate and defensible analytical data analyzing environmental samples using approved methods.
A2LA will begin seeking individual recognition with each state, since many state regulations currently require that accreditation be a government function. A2LA recommends that laboratories accredited or seeking accreditation un
der NELAP team with their state to encourage state recognition of both governmental and non-governmental accreditation bodies. Laboratories may contact Karin Athanas, A2LA Government and Regulatory Affairs Manager, at kathanas@A2LA.org or 301-644-3236, for guidance on how to initiate this conversation with their state.