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EPA Traceability Protocol for Assay and Certification of Gaseous Calibration Standards (EPA/600/R-12/531, May 2012)
Citation:
Wright, B. EPA Traceability Protocol for Assay and Certification of Gaseous Calibration Standards (EPA/600/R-12/531, May 2012). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R/12/531, 2012.
Impact/Purpose:
This protocol provides the technical basis for establishing the traceability of gaseous calibration standards to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). When the standards were first prepared in the 1970s, they were found to be too inaccurate and unstable to be used for regulatory purposes. The original protocol was prepared in 1978. Parts 50, 58, 60, 72, and 75 of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) require using Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) or gaseous standards traceable to SRMs for calibrating and auditing ambient air and stationary source pollutant monitoring systems. This 2012 revision of the protocol makes several state-of-the-art technical improvements to improve the protocol's utility to producers of these standards, users of gaseous standards, and other analytical laboratories
Description:
In 1997, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, revised its 1993 version of its traceability protocol for the assay and certification of compressed gas and permeation-device calibration standards. The protocol allows producers of gaseous standards, users of gaseous standards, and other analytical laboratories to establish traceability of EPA Protocol Gases to gaseous reference standards produced by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Parts 50, 58, 60, 72, and 75 of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) require using Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) or gaseous standards traceable to SRMs for calibrating and auditing ambient air and stationary source pollutant monitoring systems. The purposes of the 1997 revision were to revise the statistical procedures in the 1993 version, to consolidate two earlier published versions, and other improvements. This 2012 revision of the protocol has made several major and minor changes from the 1997 revision, including the statistical test that is used to determine the stability of reactive gas mixtures has been changed from Student's t-test to Schuirmann's two one-sided tests (TOST), a new procedure and an associated spreadsheet have been prepared for the assay and certification of a compressed gas zero air material as conforming to 40 CFR Part 72.2, and a new procedure and a new spreadsheet has been prepared for the assay and certification of dynamic gas dilution systems. The producers of reference standards that are assayed and certified under this protocol are allowed one year after the publication of this revision of the protocol to implement the changes that have been made to this protocol.