Environmental Laboratory Advisory Board
The Environmental Laboratory Advisory Board (ELAB) is established in compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) to provide consensus advice, information and recommendations on issues related to:
- Enhancing EPA's measurement programs
- Facilitating the operation and expansion of a national environmental accreditation program
History and Mission
In 1995, Environmental Laboratory Advisory Board (ELAB) was initially solely established to solicit consensus advice from the environmental laboratory community on the formation of the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Conference (NELAC) process and standards. Since then, ELAB’s Charter has been expanded to now provide consensus advice, information and recommendations to:
- Forum on Environmental Measurements (FEM)
- EPA’s Science Advisor
- EPA’s Administrator
ELAB enhances the EPA’s measurement programs in areas such as:
- Validating and disseminating methods for sample collection and for biological, chemical, radiological and toxicological analysis
- Developing scientifically rigorous, statistically sound and representative measurements
- Employing the performance paradigm in environmental monitoring and regulatory programs
- Improving communications and outreach between EPA and its stakeholder communities
- Employing a quality systems approach that ensures that the data gathered and used by the Agency are of known and documented quality
ELAB facilitates the operation and expansion of a national environmental accreditation program. In this regard, ELAB will provide advice and recommendations to EPA on issues that impact the non-governmental community that are related to:
- The operation and expansion of a national environmental accreditation program characterized by an acceptance of the program by all states and suitable for accrediting environmental laboratories or entities of all sizes and types
- Steps that need to be taken in order to facilitate the further implementation of the performance paradigm in the nation’s environmental monitoring and accreditation programs