ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on both general quality assurance (QA) considerations and specific quality control (QC) measures applied to Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB). Emphasis on QA in chemical analysis has increased dramatically in the past few years with the realization that data of unknown quality are virtually useless. QA is generally defined as the system, program, or structure within an organization which plans, designs, and monitors the QC procedures and affirms the data quality in reports. The QA program for a given laboratory, if already in place and operational, should need little adjustment for analysis of samples for PCBs. The vast majority of the PCB publications omit the last step, forcing the reader to speculate on the data quality. The identity and concentrations of the analytes are packaged separately from the encoded samples and can be retained by the organizational QA officer so that the laboratory personnel perform the analyses blind.
