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IMEP-12: trace elements in water; objective evaluation of the performance of the laboratories when measuring quality parameters prescribed in the European Directive 98/83/EC

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Abstract

The International Measurement Evaluation Programme (IMEP) is an interlaboratory comparison scheme, founded, owned and co-ordinated by the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM) since 1988. IMEP-12, for the fourth time in the series, focused on trace elements in water and it was designed specifically to support European Commission directive 98/83/EC. Reference values for the concentration of ten elements were established with expanded uncertainties according to GUM. In total, 348 laboratories from 46 countries in five continents participated in the comparison and the degree of equivalence between the results of the laboratories and the reference values is presented graphically. Samples from the same batch were distributed to ten laboratories from European Countries, which represented their country in the framework of the EUROMET project 528. Participation in this comparison was offered to the European Co-operation for Accreditation (EA) for participation of accredited laboratories from all over Europe in the framework of the collaboration between IRMM and EA and to laboratories from the EU new member states and acceding countries in the frame of IRMM’s ‘Metrology in Chemistry support program for EU new member states and acceding countries.’

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Acknowledgements

IMEP runs under the support and auspices of IUPAC, EURACHEM, EUROMET and CITAC. Special thanks are owned to the colleagues who worked on the preparation of the samples, Dr. W. Kandler and Prof. R. Krska from IFA and all the scientists who contributed to the establishment of the IMEP-12 reference values: - Dr. J. Diemer, Dr. C. Quétel and Dr. P. Robouch from IRMM, Prof. T. Prohaska from BOKU, Dr. J. Vogl from BAM, Dr. K. Inagaki from NMIJ, Dr. P. Evans and Dr. B. Fairman from LGC. In addition the assistance throughout the whole project to the RCs should be acknowledged: - Dr. C. Puglisi (Argentina), A. Squirrell / Dr. P. Briggs (Australia), Prof. R. Krska (Austria), Dr. T. Schilling (Brazil), A. Todorova (Bulgaria), Dr. C. Michael (Cyprus), Mr. J. Tichy (Czech Republic), Prof. M. Khater (Egypt), Mrs. Szilagyi (Hungary), Prof. K. Okamoto (Japan), Prof. A. Galdikas (Lithuania), Dr. Y. Mitani (Mexico), Dr. J. Jiang (Singapore), Dr. S. Duta (Rumania), Mrs. Z. Mackova (Slovak Republic), Dr. N. Majcen (Slovenia), Mrs. M. Archer (South Africa), Dr. U. Örnemark (Sweden), Dr. M. Weber (Switzerland), Dr. N. Boley (United Kingdom) and Mrs. Bednarova who was responsible for the co-ordination of the EA nominated laboratories. Finally the authors would like to express their gratitude to Mrs. H. Kerslake, Dr. P. DeGroot, Mrs. I. Dams and Prof. P. De Bièvre for their contribution throughout this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM), Retieseweg, 2440, Geel, Belgium

    Ioannis Papadakis, Lutgart Van Nevel, Caroline Harper, Yetunde Aregbe & Philip D. P. Taylor

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  1. Ioannis Papadakis
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  2. Lutgart Van Nevel
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  3. Caroline Harper
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  4. Yetunde Aregbe
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  5. Philip D. P. Taylor
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Correspondence to Philip D. P. Taylor.

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Papadakis, I., Van Nevel, L., Harper, C. et al. IMEP-12: trace elements in water; objective evaluation of the performance of the laboratories when measuring quality parameters prescribed in the European Directive 98/83/EC. Accred Qual Assur 12, 105–111 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00769-006-0227-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00769-006-0227-4

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