The EC QA/QC Programmes for Inorganic Gas Pollutants Testing

The Air Quality Directive (2008/50/EC) asks for the organisation of quality assurance programmes for air quality assessment methods at European level. Since the early 1990s the European Reference Laboratory for Air Pollution (ERLAP) of the EC’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has carried out Intercomparison Exercises (IE) for air pollution measurements on a regular basis for Member States of the EU. All European National Reference Laboratories (NRLs), joined together in the AQUILA Network, are obliged to participate in IE. More than 45 laboratories and institutes, coming from 35 European countries, have participated in the IE during the last 15 years. The results of the most recent IE which took place from 2005 to 2010 are described. Gas mixtures with some concentrations of CO, SO2, NOx, and O3 were generated and measured by the participants. With the results of the participants’ z’-score, En number, repeatability and reproducibility, outlier through the test of Grubb were evaluated.