Accreditation of conformity assessment bodies in the field of environmental testing in India

Abstract

The assessment of conformity assessment bodies (CABs) in the field of environmental testing is conducted as per ISO/IEC 17,025:2017 by the accreditation bodies (AB). All the environmental testing CABs are required to face the assessment for getting accreditation as per the applied scope of accreditation for the testing of air, water and soils samples. The CABs may undertake the testing of various samples as per the facility available within the CAB. The testing of environmental parameters can be segregated into three discipline, namely biological testing, chemical testing and mechanical testing. The techniques of assessment for the applicant CABs and accredited CABs can be divided into two categories, off site assessment and onsite assessment. The types of assessment adopted by the accreditation bodies (AB) can be different at different stage based on the requirement of the economic environment of the country. In this paper, the various types of assessment techniques along with the national accreditation processes in India are discussed.