The Challenges and Economics of Analytical Testing and Reference Material Production in New Markets and a Sub-PPB World

Data Quality, Management & Review
Oral Presentation

Prepared by P. Atkins
SPEX CertiPrep, 203 Norcross Rd, Metuchen, NJ, 08527, United States


Contact Information: patkins@spex.com; 732-623-0470


ABSTRACT

The analytical testing world had undergone significant changes within the last few decades and reference materials providers are often in a race to keep up with the changes in technology, range and legality. Within the past decades, the numbers of environmental contaminants has increased exponentially while the action limits have dropped in concentration to sometimes sub-ppb concentrations. These leaps in technology and shrinking analytical targets are a challenge to both the analytical testing world and the reference materials providers. Added into the mix of challenges are new markets requiring testing and regulation, new legislation or legalities to be determined and the battle of economics of good science. This presentation will look at all the challenges that face reference materials providers and analytical laboratories and the strategies being implemented to meet the increasing demands of technology and safety in the face of an economic world. We will identify challenges to analytical accuracy by way of contamination and take a look at the new industry of cannabis as both a challenge to environmental testing and as a potentially unregulated challenging analytical grey area. Finally, we will look at the cost of producing and procuring analytical reference materials as an economic barrier which can be a challenge to good scientific practices.