BCR - A SERVICE TO QUALITY ASSURANCE IN ANALYTICAL-CHEMISTRY - SOME EXPERIENCES AND ACHIEVEMENTS WITH REGARD TO REFERENCE MATERIAL PREPARATION

Despite all efforts to improve the quality of results of measurements, intercomparisons demonstrate a considerable discrepancy. This fact was also shown by many of the round robins organised by the BCR (Commission of the European Communities) on inorganic, speciation, and organic determinations in various environmental matrices. It is clear that further efforts have to be made to improve the state of the art of a wide variety of analyses. This means that the demand for certified reference materials (CRMs) is and will be in constant increase. RMs are required for the validation of methods, for proficiency testing or for training purposes. The production of RMs and CRMs resembling the composition of real matrices poses difficult problems for some compounds and is a challenge for the producers. This paper presents some recent experiences and achievements of the BCR in special cases.