Rhode Island Code of Regulations
Title 216 - Department of health
Chapter 60 - Laboratories and Medical Examiner
Subchapter 05 - State Laboratory
Part 5 - Certifying Analytical Laboratories
Section 216-RICR-60-05-5.3 - Definitions

1. "A2LA" means American Association for Laboratory Accreditation, a voluntary program for accrediting environmental lead laboratories and proficiency testing providers to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard.

2. "Accredited" means to be recognized as conforming to a standard by an accrediting organization (i.e., NELAP approved accrediting authorities, American Industrial Hygiene Association [AIHA], American Association for Laboratory Accreditation [A2LA]).

3. "Act" means R.I. Gen. Laws Chapter 23-16.2, entitled "Laboratories."

4. "AIHA" or "American Industrial Hygiene Association" means a voluntary program for accrediting environmental lead laboratories for the testing of Environmental Lead per the ISO/IEC 17025 standard.

5. "Analytical laboratory" means a facility for the biological, microbiological, chemical, physical, and radiochemical examination of potable water, non-potable water, or other environmental matrices.

6. "Analytical reagent grade", "(AR) grade", "ACS reagent grade", and "reagent grade" means reagents that conform to the current specifications of the Committee on Analytical Reagents of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

7. "ASTM" means the American Society for Testing and Materials.

8. "Applicant" means a laboratory applying to the Department to become a certified analytical laboratory.

9. "Certification" means the determination by the Department of Health that an analytical laboratory can perform tests or analyses of environmental samples in accordance with the requirements of these rules and regulations.

10. "Certified thermometer" means a thermometer that has documentation from the manufacturer that it has been calibrated by NIST.

11. "Class 'A' glassware" means glassware satisfying the applicable requirements for Class A glassware established by NIST.

12. "Compliance analysis or testing" means the analysis of a sample that is required by law or regulation.

13. "Department" means the Rhode Island Department of Health.

14. "Director" means the Director of the Rhode Island Department of Health.

15. "Environmental lead" means lead in paint, dust, wipe and soil and/or water samples collected for laboratory testing to support the migration of lead hazard or exposure.

16. "EPA" means the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

17. "ISO/IEC 17025" means the International Organization for Standardization Standard 17025 used by laboratories that produce testing and calibration results.

18. "NELAP" means National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program, which implements the TNI standards and evaluates the accrediting authority programs.

19. "NPDES" means National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, a program of the EPA.

20. "NIST" means National Institute of Standards and Technology, an agency that sets accuracy standards for laboratory equipment and accredits proficiency test providers.

21. "Persons" means any individual, firm, partnership, corporation, company, association, or joint stock ownership.

22. "Proficiency testing sample" or "PT sample" means a subsample of a matrix containing analytes of a concentration unknown to the laboratory that is used to evaluate the performance of its analytical systems. Proficiency testing samples shall be obtained from a provider that is accredited by the TNI Proficiency Testing Provider Accreditation Program.

23. "Quality assurance" or "QA" means the integrated system of operations and measurements performed to assure that data meets defined standards of quality within a stated level of confidence.

24. "Quality control" or "QC" means the practice of standardized operations or measurements that determine or predict aspects of data quality.

25. "TNI" or "NELAC Institute" means a voluntary non-profit organization whose mission is to foster performance standards for the operation of environmental laboratories for the generation of environmental data of known and documented quality through process that is endorsed by the EPA. TNI also maintains the Proficiency Testing Provider Accreditor program.