BALTIC SEAENVIRONMENT PROCEEDINGS No. 59 - Helcom

Accordingly, the HELSINKI COMMISSION
"urged the Contracting Parties to participate in the Quality As-
surance Exercises whenever possible and decided that the
participation in QA-exercises is mandatory for the laboratories
providing BMP data on parameters included in the mandatory part
of the Baltic Monitoring Programme" {HELSINKI COMMISSION, 1993).
Scientific Justification for Quality Assurance for Chemical Ana-
lytical Procedures in Marine Monitoring
In a recent article Topping (1992) concluded that although there
had been considerable improvement in analytical chemistry over
the past two decades, there was a large number of European labo-
ratories which still had difficulties in providing reliable data
in routine work. The author based his conclusion on the results
of a series of external quality assessments of analysis
(generally referred to as intercomparison exercises), organized
over the last 20 years by the International Council for the
Exploration of the Sea (ICES), and which have shown that there
are large interlaboratory differences in the measurements of
contaminants in marine samples.
As a consequence of lacking measures to assure the quality of
analytical data, information about variations of contaminant le-
vels both in space and time are often uncertain or misleading,
and the effects of political measures to improve the quality of
the marine environment cannot be adequately assessed. Therefore,
the acquisition of relevant and reliable data is an essential
component of any research and monitoring programme associated
with marine environmental protection. To obtain such data, the
whole analytical process must proceed under a well established
Quality Assurance (QA) programme.
Quality Assurance in Practice
Quality assurance is defined as the procedures carried out by
laboratory staff which ensure that data of the appropriate qua-
lity is obtained to meet the objectives of the analysis
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