Quality Assurance/Quality Control
Procedures for the State Automatic
Monitoring System for Ambient Air
Quality in the Republic of Macedonia
ljupcho Grozdanovski
Division for air quality monitoring
Ministry of environment and physical planning
Prizren, 02-04 July 2013
Air Quality support meeting, West Balkan countries
STRUCTURE OF THE SAMSAAQ
State Automatic Monitoring System for Ambient Air
Quality (SAMSAAQ) is consisted by:
Air Quality Calibration Laboratory
State Air Quality Monitoring Network (17 th monitoring
stations and 10 LVS and HVS samplers)
Air Quality data Management/collection System
(Airviro)
QUALITY SYSTEM
The Quality System is established, implemented and maintained by Division for Air Quality
Monitoring and includes the following documents:
Quality manual,
Quality
manual
Records
SOPs,
SOPs
Registers,
Forms,
Reporting
Registers
Report,
QA/QC procedures,
Data base
Forms
Plans,
Lists,
Data base,
Reporting,
Lists
Report
Plans
QA/QC
procedures
Records etc;
All policies, systems, programs, procedures and instruction are documented to enable the
SAMSAAQ to assure the quality of generated results.
QUALITY MANUAL
The Quality Manual describing the activities
and organization of personnel for the
Air Quality
Calibration Laboratory
State Air Quality
Monitoring Network
Air Quality Data
Management/Collection
System
The content of the QM covers the part of the
ISO/IEC 17025 related with the management
requirements
THE STANDARD OPERATING
PROCEDURES
The Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) describe in details all
processes and activities that take places in the Calibration
laboratory, Monitoring network and Data management system. They
are divided in different sections:
 Section A: General (5 SOPs);
 Section C for Calibration methods in the Calibration laboratory (7
SOPs);
 Section D for the Analysis methods (11 SOPs);
 Section E for Data analysis and report (3 SOPs);
 Section F for Field measurements (2 SOPs) and
 Section G for Data management (3 SOPs).
General (5 SOP’s)
The operation of the Air Quality Calibration Laboratory
Site selection criteria
List of documents and records type
Service to the customer
Procedures to control Nonconforming work
Calibration laboratory - Calibration methods (7 SOPs)
Operation of static injection system and calibration of the gas analyzers
Operation of the dynamic dilution system and calibration of the gas analyzers
Operation of the photometric method for calibration of ozone analyzer
Determination the converter efficiency of the NOx analyzer by Gas Phase
Titration method (GPT)
Reference standards and measurement traceability
Calibration instruction of the gas analyzers
Preparation of dilution gas for calibration of the gas analyzers
Analysis methods (11 SOPs)
Chemiluminescence method: Thermo Environmental Instruments,
TEI 42C NO-NO2-NOx analyzer
Chemiluminescence method: Casella monitor, ML2041 NONO2-NOx analyzer
UV-fluorescence method: Thermo Environmental
Instruments, TEI 43C SO2 analyzer
UV-fluorescence method: Casella monitor, ML2050 SO2
analyzer
UV-Photometric method: Thermo Environmental
Instruments, TEI 49C O3 analyzer
UV-photometric method: Casella monitor, ML2010 O3 analyzer
Analysis methods (11 SOPs)
Non-Dispersive infrared method: Thermo Environmental Instrument, TEI 48C
Gas Filter Correlation CO analyzer
Non-Dispersive infrared method: Casella monitor, ML2030 CO analyzer
β-attenuation method: Thermo ESM Andersen, FH 62 I-R PM2.5 and
PM10 Automated Particulate Monitoring Instrument
Hybrid β-attenuation/nepfelometric method: Thermo Fisher Scientific,
5030 SHARP PM2.5 and PM10 Automated Particulate Monitor
PM2.5 and PM10 Reference method: Low Volume Samplers
Data analysis
and report
SOP-E1: Data files and
database in the laboratory
Field
measurements
SOP-F1: Quality
Assurance/Quality Control
Procedures For The State
Air Quality Monitoring
Network In The Republic
Of Macedonia
SOP-E2: Calculation of
the calibration results
SOP-E3: Preparation of
the calibration certificate
Data
management
SOP-G1 Data management
SOP-G2 Data validation
SOP-F2: Weighing,
handling and storage of
filters for PM10 LVSand HVS-sampling
Total: prepared 31 SOPs
SOP-G3 Data Reporting
Uncertainty budget
 Uncertainty calculations have been
performed for each of the calibration
concentration prepared by different
calibration methods and they are presented
at each of the SOP-C1 to C4.
 In addition the uncertainty of the analysis
methods are prepared for the laboratory
measurements and for field measurements.
Internal audit
 Internal audit was performed at the
measuring site and in laboratory.
 The Audit questionnaire was fulfilled and
Audit report issued.
 Internal audit identified nonconformities and
the corrective actions should be follow and
immediately realized in order to be able to
fulfill the data quality objectives for the
measurements.
Data quality objectives
The data quality objectives for the air quality
measurements at the measurement stations
can be easily became unsatisfactory due to the
lack of:





spare parts;
certified calibration gas standards;
regular costs for maintenance and service of the
measuring instruments;
employees;
specialized trainings.
ACHIEVEMENTS
 All prepared SOPs concerning all relevant activities
of the system are in use;
 The uncertainty budget for
measurements was built up;
the
air
quality
 QA/QC procedures are in full operation;
 The air quality web portal was developed where Air
quality data are presented in real time:
http://airquality.moepp.gov.mk/
 Participation to the interlaboratory comparison
exercises organized by EC/JRC and by WHO;
 Participation to the meetings of AQUILA group.
Thank you for your
attention