BALTIC SEAENVIRONMENT PROCEEDINGS No. 59 - Helcom

The Need for Quality Assurance in Marine Environmental Protec-
tion
Under the auspices of the Baltic Marine Environment Protection
Commission - HELSINKI COMMISSION - marine environmental monito-
ring data have been collected since 1379 within the frame of the
Baltic Monitoring Programme (BMP). The guidelines for the pro-
gramme are reviewed in regular time intervals of 5 years by the
Commissions. The third Stage of the BMP started in 1989.
The monitoring data provided by the Contracting Parties to the
HELSINKI Convention serve as a source of information for the
preparation of periodic assessments of the state of the marine
environment of the Baltic Sea. The work is performed by a group
of experts from all Baltic states, as well as representatives of
the International Council for the Exploration of rhe Sea (ICES)
and the Conference of the Baltic Oceanographers (CBO).
On the basis of the results from the monitoring work, the Group
of Experts for the Preparation of the Second Periodic Assessment
of the State of the Baltic Sea (GESPA), expressed concern over
the unsatisfactory degree of interlaboratory comparability of
data. They agreed that a programme of Quality Assurance (QA)
should be developed to allow experts to specify the limits of
uncertainty of measurements and which would help them to decide
objectively whether analytical information provided is of accep-
table quality. In particular, GESPA recommended
- "the Helsinki Ccmmission should ensure that certified
reference materials are made available for laboratories
involved in the Baltic Monitoring Programme in order to
improve the quality and the quality control of the
data. Further elaboration of methods agreed upon and
participation in intercalibration exercises is neces-
sary" (HELSINKI com-~IssrorJ, 1990).
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