Application of standard materials and standard reference materials in the analysis of lead in blood

Summary Valuable information can be obtained at little expenses from quality control samples prepared in-house to monitor the determination of blood lead by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Commercially manufactured control materials can also be used for this purpose. These materials are compared to standard reference materials which at present are available.The relative standard deviations for analysis of NBS standard reference materials were 15.4–2.8% (range 60–754 g/l) and in agreement with the relative standard deviation estimated for the analytical method. The corresponding figures for BCR control reference materials were lower: 1.1–1.4% (range 134–795 g/l).The average analytical bias demonstrated by analysis of NBS standard reference material and BCR control reference material were 3–6% (range 795–60 g/l) and in agreement with bias estimated by analysis of commercially manufactured and in-house prepared control materials.