Improving Quality Assurance/Quality Control And Data Management in Lithuania

1. Improving Quality Assurance/Quality Control And Data Management in Lithuania JUOZAS MOLIS Head of Automatic Measurement Systems Department Geneva, 11 June 2007

2. Introduction The aims and objectives of the Lithuanian automatic air quality monitoring network data are: • Meeting national requirements, in particular EU Directives • Providing necessary information on air quality for the public, decision makers and scientific community • Identifying long term trends on air pollutant concentrations • Assessment of policy effectiveness

3. NRL main tasks • Administration and maintenance of the quality system (preparation SOPs and quality documents) • Maintaining the national reference standards • Instrument selection, method validation, data validation and training • Audits in the network • Maintaining the central database

4. Quality handbook I part. Description of the quality system (Quality assurance): • References to national and EU legislation and Directives • Quality organization, tasks and responsibilities • Criteria for NRL, calibration laboratory and network operators • Data quality objectives and measurement uncertainties • Definition of zone and agglomerations

5. Quality handbook II part. Description of network operation (Quality control): • Network operator manuals • Standard operations procedures (SOPs) • Instrument performance acceptance criteria • Description of traceability and calibrations • Document handling and upgrading control

6. Data quality assurance Criteria for network establishment and selection of sampling points (ID1 VI and VII annexes); Standardised reference measurement methods or equivalent methods (ID1 IX annexes) • Network design • Station siting • Instrument selection • Instrument service and repair • Operation manuals • Operator training • Instrument calibration • Site audit • Intercalibration National assessment laboratory (FD 3 article);

7. Calibration In the national network and in the majority of local networks a 3-stage approach to calibration is adopted: • daily span and zero check with the analysers internal gas source (permeation tube or gas cylinder) • 4-weekly manual calibration with certified calibration gas cylinder • 6-monthly site audit check with an independent gas standard to check the calibration of the analyser and the stability of the on-site gas cylinder

8. Calibration Calibration gas and operator audit carried out at 6-monthly intervals the following checks are undertaken: • linearity • noise • response time • leaks and flow check • converter efficiency • analyser calibration

9. Calibration The requirements for analysers to be dynamically calibrated at site are as follows: • when analyser is initially installed • if any repair is done on the analyser • if tolerances of zero/span checks are not met • if analyser is relocated

10. Quality control Quality control activities include: • Information management • Data ratification • Quality circle review and feedback checking, accepting, rejecting or adjusting the data, on the basis of all available information by software and manual operation by expert final decisions on data acceptance or rejection

11. Data management Tasks of national air-quality assessment and management system: • Collection of all available air-quality data • Collection of all available emission data • Collection of supporting data (meteorological, traffic) • Data verification (quality control) • Modeling of concentration fields of pollutants • Assessment and modeling of trends in air quality • Data reporting (national and international).

12. Air quality data for the year 2006

13. Conclusions • QA/QC procedures has been successfully incorporated into operation of the Lithuanian national automatic air-quality monitoring network • The data are the high quality and fulfil the aims and objectives of the network • Qualified personnel is the basement for data quality

14. Thank you for your attention