Bi-ennial Global Interlaboratory Assessment on Persistent Organic Pollutants – First Round 2010/2011

The Chemicals Branch of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) with the assistance of funds from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), SAICM Quick Start Programme, and the government of Norway organized the interlaboratory assessment on persistent organic pollutants, named the “Biennial Global Interlaboratory Assessment on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)”. The assessment has been implemented during 2010-2011. Its goal was to test the capabilities of laboratories in the analysis of the twelve initial POPs listed in the Stockholm Convention. The UNEP-coordinated Global Interlaboratory Assessment was performed according to internationally agreed standards (following ISO-International Organization for Standardization and ILAC-International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation). Such proficiency tests are valuable management tools to allow external quality controls of the performance of a laboratory that undertake chemical analysis.