Accreditation: a challenge

 This paper describes a real accreditation case from VTT Chemical Technology in Finland. The laboratory has acquired accreditation according to ISO/IEC Guide 25 and EN 45001 for a variety of organic and inorganic environmental tests. The present paper summarizes the reasons for applying for accreditation and selecting the test methods, gives the costs involved, and describes some future developments and views. Also, some details of laboratory intercomparisons and quality system structures are briefly reported.