Environmental Laboratory Advisory Board

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The Environmental Laboratory Advisory Board (ELAB) was established in 1995 in compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) to solicit consensus advice from the environmental laboratory community on the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Conference (NELAC) process and standards. Since their initial Charter, the advice, information, and recommendations ELAB provides to the Assistant Administrator of the Office of Research and Development; the Forum on Environmental Measurements, and the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Administrator has been changed to include issues related to:

Enhancing the Environmental Protection Agency's (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 the EPA and its stakeholder communicates; and
- Employing a quality systems approach that ensures that the data gathered and used by the Agency are of known and documented quality.
Facilitating the operation and expansion of a national environmental laboratory 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 laboratory 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; and
- Steps that need to be taken in order to facilitate the further implementation of the performance paradigm in the nation's environmental monitoring and environmental laboratory accreditation programs.

ELAB is composed of approximately 15 members at any given time who serve as representative members. Candidates are sought with relevant backgrounds to the aforementioned scope, but generally include individuals from trade associations for the environmental laboratory industry, trade associations from EPA's regulated community; environmental public interest groups; academia; federal, local, and tribal governments; and laboratory assessment bodies. All ELAB meetings are open to the public and any interested persons may attend at any time.

ELAB's Charter (PDF) (3 pp, 22K)

ELAB Membership Roster (PDF) (2 pp, 48K)

Environmental Laboratory Advisory Board

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