Air microbiology – external quality assurance program

Cano, Manuela; Rosa, Nuno; Correia, Helena; Faria, Ana Paula

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.18/4357

Use this identifier to reference this record.

Name:	Description:	Size:	Format:
Poster ICOETOX 2016 final.pdf		560.49 KB	Adobe PDF	Download

Send Feedback

Authors

Abstract(s)

The Regulation on Energy Heating and Cooling Systems in Buildings (Decreto-Lei 79/2006, April 4th) imposed efficiency rules for Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning Systems (HVAC) in buildings, established reference concentrations for chemical and microbiological pollutants and compelled the execution of regular audits to indoor air quality in order to guarantee healthy indoor environments in existing commercial buildings with large HVAC systems. Given the significant increase in indoor air quality audits it became necessary to harmonize sampling and analysis procedures for microbiological pollutants in order to obtain comparable results. The Air and Occupational Health Unit (UASO) implemented the required procedures for accreditation of the assay “Determination of airborne culturable microorganisms” according to the International Standard ISO/IEC 17025 [1], unequivocal indicator of technical proficiency. In the absence of external quality assessment programs (EQA), a requirement of the standard, the UASO Unit in collaboration with the National Program for External Quality Assessment, organized the EQA program - Air Microbiology that consists on the bacteriological and fungal enumeration in air samples collected following the EN 13998 Standard methodology [2]. The EQA program allowed the comparability of results between participant Laboratories leading also to the harmonization of procedures, improving the traceability of measurements, result validation and improving the whole process leading to accreditation. At the end of each year the organizers of the EQA Program present the results and organize training courses in the areas identified as sensitive. The most debated topics have been the equipment calibration, estimation of uncertainty, the acceptance criteria of duplicate samples and control laboratory test conditions. The aim of this study is the assessment of the results of the EQA program - Air Microbiology (2010-2015).