Accredited proficiency testing for Gaseous Air Pollutants

For operators of national and international air quality monitoring networks, manufacturers of measurement equipment and civil engineers and laboratories measuring air quality, the Environment Agency Austria offers the opportunity to assess the performance of air quality measurement. This can be achieved through participation in proficiency testing. For this purpose, an inter-laboratory comparison facility for gaseous air pollutants, unique in Austria, is used.

Foto blauer Himmel mit vielen, kleinen Wolken — © Umweltbundesamt/B. Groeger

The Environment Agency Austria is accredited for proficiency testing of gaseous air pollutants according to EN ISO/IEC 17043:2010, since May 17^th2017.

The proficiency testing facility of the Environment Agency Austria is located in Vienna‘s 20^thdistrict, Handelskai 102-112. In addition to a spacious room where the testing facility and the work places are located, a meeting room is available. Access for the delivery and collection of instruments is provided on a covered parking deck, independent of the weather conditions. The proficiency testing facility is close to the Environment Agency Austria and easily accessible by public transport (underground stop and suburban railway station “Handelskai”).

Over an extended period of time, usually three to four days, the participants of a proficiency testing exercise measure gaseous air pollutants (NO, NO₂, CO, SO₂and O₃). Statistical analyses are performed by the Environment Agency Austria to compare the results of the participants with the reference values, in order to assess the accuracy and quality of the measurements.

Compliance is evaluated on the basis of a common criterion (z’-score) and an individual criterion (E_n-number), along with repeatability and reproducibility as well as measurement uncertainty, according to the standards of the European Reference Laboratory for Air Pollution (ERLAP).