[Quality assurance of examinations performed by laboratories of the State Sanitary Inspection Service]

An accredited laboratory means that its competence in performing particular tests and examinations is officially recognised. Requirements concerning testing laboratories are specified in the European Standard EN 45001 and in the Guide ISO/ICE-25. When applying for an accreditation laboratories of the State Sanitary Inspectorate have to develop new or adjust existing systems of quality assurance in accordance with the aforesaid recommendations. The system of laboratory quality assurance should be described thoroughly in the quality manual and backed up by an appropriate documentation. An application for accreditation should be preceded by the following steps: setting up of a team of persons responsible for quality assurance policy, drawing up criteria for assessing testing methods and procedures, promoting principles of quality assurance and introducing necessary corrections, formulating an accreditation application form which should comprise: the range of expected accreditation, kind of investigations to be performed and methods to be applied. An application together with the quality manual should be submitted to the Central Bureau for Product Quality Assurance in Warsaw--the only office which grants accreditation in Poland.