ACS achieves ISO 17034:2016 accreditation

TORONTO, Friday, March 3, 2017–Certified by the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA), ACS achieves ISO 17034:2016, an international accreditation. Focusing on the competence and consistent operation of reference material products, this certification is part of quality assurance procedures for reference material producers. The reference material produced by ACS is an alcohol reference solution used to calibrate breath alcohol testing devices.

“Alcohol Reference Solutions (ARS) are widely used in forensic and toxicology applications for the determination of blood alcohol content. Since blood alcohol tests can result in legal implications, the laboratory reference calibration process must be reliable,” says Felix J.E. Comeau, Chairman and CEO–Alcohol Countermeasure Systems (ACS).

The accuracy and uncertainty associated with ARS are important contributors to the accuracy and associated uncertainty of blood alcohol test results. It is imperative that the uncertainty of the reference solutions be within defined margins and that the certified concentration is accurate and completely traceable to international units of measure.

“What does this mean for ACS? This accreditation demonstrates we have performed and passed all required tests on our certified alcohol reference solution, making distribution and sales quicker since individual tests are no longer required,” says Felix J.E. Comeau.
ACS Alcohol Reference Standards are manufactured and certified to ISO 17034 through the ACS Metrology Laboratory and Forcon Consulting, the ISO/IEC 17025 standards and are traceable to SI units and to NIST SRM ethanol standards.

17034:2016 is a revision of ISO Guide 34:2009. Obtaining ISO 17034:2016 shows ACS also complies with ISO Guide 30:2015, ISO Guide 31:2015, and ISO Guide 35:2006.