The external review committee on pure reference materials at the National Analytical Reference Laboratory

The preceding paper described the implementation of a quality assurance system suitable for accreditation to ISO Guide 34 by the Pure Substance Reference Material (PSRM) team of the National Analytical Reference Laboratory (NARL). One of the key components of this system has been the establishment of an external advisory committee that scrutinises each candidate material that is to be offered as a reference material. At the time of writing 190 reference materials were available from NARL, including a range of illicit drugs and agricultural chemicals in addition to anabolic steroids and their metabolites, and all have been reviewed by the external committee prior to final approval by the accredited production signatory.