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NELAC encounters bumpy road The fifth annual interim meeting of the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Conference (NELAC), held in Washington, DC, in December 1999, got off to a grim start when Henry Longest of EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) announced that the program should become self-sustaining. Although EPA will continue to be a partner, funding responsibilities for NELAC must be met by the private sector, he said. The announcement comes after yet another reorganization within EPA. In October 1999, EPA created a new information office, under which it placed its quality assurance division. Although some believe that NELAC should reside with the quality assurance division, the decision was made to keep NELAC under ORD. Many within ORD believe that its money would be better spent on research than on a national laboratory accreditation program. The NELAC board of directors, however, is optimistic that EPA will continue to fund the program. “We have a commitment from EPA’s deputy administrator to fund NELAC until 2001,” says past NELAC chair Ken Jackson. Nonetheless, NELAC’s Transition Committee has been charged with quickly convincing EPA to continue its funding beyond 2001 or finding alternative monetary sources. NELAC is a nationwide effort to reduce the number of accreditations required for environmental laboratories to conduct business across state lines (Anal. Chem. 1999, 71, 329 A–331 A). After five years of developing standards,
Among the projects to be supported to the
implementation of the program officially began the summer of 1999 following the fifth annual NELAC meeting in Saratoga Springs, NY. To be successful, there cannot be any inconsistencies between EPA regulations and the NELAC standards. A strong partnership must exist between NELAC and EPA. Evidence that this partnership is lacking, however, became apparent on December 1 when EPA’s Office of Water (OW) promulgated a regulation (Fed. Regist. 1999, 64 (230), 67449–67467) that is clearly inconsistent with the NELAC Proficiency Testing (PT) standards. When the regulation was in its proposal stage, NELAC’s PT Committee sent in comments pointing out its inconsistencies with the NELAC standards, says Barbara Burmeister, committee chair. However, EPA promulgated the regulation anyway, disregarding NELAC’s comments. According to Jackson, the NELAC board of directors met with Cynthia Dougherty of OW to express concerns with the new regulation and to prevent such inconsistencies from arising in the future. Despite the bumps encountered, implementation of the program is moving forward, say NELAC officers. Eleven accrediting authorities have been approved and ~1300 environmental laboratories are expected to be NELAPaccredited in June 2000. “We are no longer predicting what could happen; we are dealing with real issues as they occur,” says NELAC chair Jim Pearson. As Paul Kimsey, a member of NELAC’s board of directors put it, “NELAC has gone live.” Britt Erickson
working in almost any area of research could
center will study air–sea exchange between the
tune of £750,000–30 million are pollution moni-
apply for funding with proposals subject to
atmosphere and the ocean surface. The focus
toring, oceanics and the environment, atmos-
peer review. Many worthy teams inevitably
will be on the effects of greenhouse gases,
pheric chemistry, protein interaction studies,
lost out despite the size of the handout. But
aerosol formation, and ozone cycling. Teams led
and combinatorial chemistry, as well as asso-
the money provides the much needed cash
by Tim Jickells and Karen Heywood at the cen-
ciated analytical science.
injection for buildings, major equipment, and
ter will be among the recipients of funding.
The funding comes as part of the Joint
other elements of university research infra-
Infrastructure Fund, a financial package sup-
structure. The share of the cash provided by
enthuses Jickells. “It will represent a huge
ported by the Wellcome Trust and the govern-
the Wellcome Trust is specifically bound for
investment and allow us to make great
ment (through its various research councils),
biomedical and related research facilities.
progress in our understanding of the interac-
with an additional share from the Higher Education Funding Council for England. Scientists 102 A
A new laboratory at the University of East Anglia will be among the major recipients. The
A N A LY T I C A L C H E M I S T R Y / F E B R U A R Y 1 , 2 0 0 0
“The JIF funding is extremely exciting,”
tions between the global atmosphere and oceans. Our aim is to take exciting develop-
