Metals in waters

They are carried out as part of self-monitoring or regulatory controls. They enable part of the requirements to be covered:

• accreditation scopes related to physico-chemical analyses in waters (see Accreditation No. 1-1664) 
• approvals issued by Ministries of Health to carry out sampling and analysis for water quality control purposes 
• approvals issued by Ministries for the Environment to carry out analyses in the field of water and aquatic environments

• fresh water, public supply water, spring water, natural mineral water
• waste water entering or leaving urban treatment plants
• saline and brackish water

Depending on the type of water, laboratories measure various metals, including heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, chromium, copper, arsenic and nickel, which are usually present in the environment in trace form.

Depending on the methods used for metal analysis, differences in results are observed. AGLAE studies them and presents them in the test reports. These observations help laboratories to better interpret their analysis results.
AGLAE has published several studies on metals based on test observations:

• Differences between methods for metals in clean water 
• Comparison of ICP/MS and other techniques for iron, titanium and mercury
• Comparison of mineralisation methods for iron and tin in wastewater

AGLAE proficiency tests are used not only to assess laboratory performance, but also to check their estimated measurement uncertainties and estimate the repeatability and reproducibility of their measurements.
AGLAE provides customised reports to laboratories, enabling them to focus on possible improvements to their analyses.

AGLAE also offers to improve the quality of your measurements:

• water sampling and in situ measurements

See all AGLAE's tests