Quality Assurance/Quality Control

EFA follows a comprehensive Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) program as specified by National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP Code: 500068-0) to monitor the quality of laboratory analyses; performance; report generation; and sample custody, storage and disposal.

EFA analysts undergo advanced training in the science of asbestos identification by light microscopy and are required to complete the NIOSH 582 course. Both the optical and electron microscopy asbestos laboratories use written Quality Assurance/Quality Control plans to ensure delivery of high quality data to EFA clients. The QA/QC plans include the following elements:

Monthly blind performance evaluation samples
Twice-daily PLM contamination checks at each workstation
Monitoring of the QA program by a designated Quality Control Coordinator
100% review of all bulk samples by PLM
Secondary analysis of 10% of all bulk samples by PLM
Inter-laboratory round robin sample exchange programs
In-house audits by trained technical auditors
Ongoing course work by TEM analysts in the Principles of TEM; Asbestos Analyses by TEM; and, Selected Area Electron Diffraction, Energy Dispersive X-ray and Bulk Asbestos TEM Methods Methods