I'm wondering if there are certain labs people use for testing air grab samples? What do I need to look for in a place that offers testing? Are there any certifications that we should look for when picking a lab? Also, are there labs that are more cost effective - for example if we were to go through a university?
Yes, but the common way it is done is with gas chromatography (GC) or some variation like gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In industry, these are called the hyphenated techniques. This is usually expensive. There are a bunch of possible certifications. It depends on exactly what purpose the data will be used for.
Universities will usually do it. It needs to be one that has the equipment you need.
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To give a few more details, a general lab certification is a2la ( american association of lab accreditation). Think that's right.
There has been a push for globalization. So instead of testing to each nations specifications, you would only test to one. The general nomenclature for these is ISO tests. For example Iso 9001. But they are expensive to get certified for. So not all labs get them.
There are also individual test methods. Does the lab test to the test method needed? It should not be just a yes. It should be a yes and we test to section or method .....
To make things worse, most universities don't have these certifications.
Hopefully, This gets you started.
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For the bucket monitor I think we want to be looking for air labs specifically. We may want to use the a2la certification to try to narrow it down. Here is some recent information I got talking to the folks at Atmospheric Analysis in CA:
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