scholarly journals Improving the quality control of drinking water in Nicaragua through proficiency testing in a metrological multilateral cooperation project

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Molina-Castro ◽  
Jimmy Venegas-Padilla ◽  
Junette Molina-Marcia ◽  
Luciana Scarioni ◽  
Bryan Calderón-Jiménez
Keyword(s):  
Quality Control ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Proficiency Testing ◽  
Substantial Improvement ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Multilateral Cooperation ◽  
Cooperation Project ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
Metrology System ◽  
Quality Infrastructure

AbstractThe United Nations General Assembly explicitly recognized the human right to water and sanitation and acknowledged that drinking water is essential to the realization of all human rights in a 2010 resolution. Supporting and strengthening the quality infrastructure in countries throughout the world guarantees more reliable water quality analyses, thus reducing the risks to consumers’ health. The present paper describes a multilateral cooperation project developed in Nicaragua to improve the country's quality infrastructure and, in turn, the quality control of drinking water. The project was developed with the support of National Metrology Institutes (NMIs) from the Inter-American Metrology System (SIM), the Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) and the participation of research institutes and laboratories in Nicaragua. Several mechanisms such as awareness seminars, workshops, metrological screenings, peer review of the laboratories’ quality systems, and organizing proficiency testing (PT) were used to successfully achieve the cooperation goal. As a result, technical infrastructure for the organization of PT rounds in Nicaragua was implemented to evaluate the relevant physicochemical parameters such as pH, chloride (Cl−), and nitrate (NO3−) in drinking water. The results from the PT rounds which took place during the two-year cooperation project showed substantial improvement in the performances of the participating laboratories, and therefore, in their measurement methods. Finally, this article shows how multilateral cooperation projects can strengthen the quality infrastructure, improving and ensuring the quality control of drinking water.

Conjuring Up New Human Rights: A Proposal For Quality Control

1984 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 607-621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Alston
Keyword(s):  
Quality Control ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Universal Declaration ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Human Right ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
20Th Anniversary ◽  
United Nations General Assembly ◽  
International Human

Writing in 1968, the year of the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Richard Bilder concluded that “in practice, a claim is an international human right if the United Nations General Assembly says it is.” Fifteen years later, as the 35th anniversary is celebrated, the authoritative role that Bilder correctly attributed to the General Assembly is in serious danger of being undermined.

Achieving Quality Reproducible Results and Maintaining Compliance in Molecular Diagnostic Testing of Human Papillomavirus

2003 ◽  
Vol 127 (8) ◽  
pp. 978-983 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline M. Seabrook ◽  
Roger A. Hubbard
Keyword(s):  
Quality Control ◽  
Human Papillomavirus ◽  
Method Validation ◽  
Proficiency Testing ◽  
Laboratory Testing ◽  
Clinical Laboratory ◽  
Laboratory Accreditation ◽  
Medical Laboratory ◽  
Molecular Diagnostic ◽  
High Complexity

Abstract Laboratories contemplating either the addition of new molecular tests or modifying methods approved by the Food and Drug Administration for human papillomavirus testing should be aware of a variety of procedural, performance, and regulatory issues surrounding such activity. Diagnostic medical laboratory testing in the United States is regulated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an agency formerly known as the Health Care Finance Administration. The regulatory vehicle of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is manifested in the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA). The CLIA program has put into place specific regulations for laboratory quality control, which includes specific recommendations for method validation. Regulations that must be followed regarding personnel, quality control, quality assurance, method validation, and proficiency testing depend on the complexity category of the individual test. All molecular diagnostic tests, including those for human papillomavirus, are considered high complexity. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services retains the authority to allow private, national accreditation organizations to “deem” that a laboratory is compliant with CLIA '88 requirements. Accreditation organizations, such as the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Hospitals, the Commission on Office Laboratory Accreditation, and the College of American Pathologists (CAP), as well as several state medical laboratory–accrediting agencies, possess the authority to deem laboratories as “CLIA-approved.” The CAP, through its Laboratory Accreditation Program, has promoted standards for laboratory performance and method validation. In general, guidelines set forth in the CAP Laboratory Accreditation Program checklists specify that all clinical laboratory testing must essentially meet those requirements defined for high-complexity testing under CLIA '88, including test validation standards, reportable/reference ranges, performance criteria, and proficiency testing.

scholarly journals The Human Right to Water and Unconventional Energy

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (9) ◽  
pp. 1858 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Palmer ◽  
Damien Short ◽  
Walter Auch
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Governmental Organization ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
Access To Water ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Right

Access to water, in sufficient quantities and of sufficient quality is vital for human health. The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (in General Comment 15, drafted 2002) argued that access to water was a condition for the enjoyment of the right to an adequate standard of living, inextricably related to the right to the highest attainable standard of health, and thus a human right. On 28 July 2010 the United Nations General Assembly declared safe and clean drinking water and sanitation a human right essential to the full enjoyment of life and all other human rights. This paper charts the international legal development of the right to water and its relevance to discussions surrounding the growth of unconventional energy and its heavy reliance on water. We consider key data from the country with arguably the most mature and extensive industry, the USA, and highlight the implications for water usage and water rights. We conclude that, given the weight of testimony of local people from our research, along with data from scientific literature, non-governmental organization (NGO) and other policy reports, that the right to water for residents living near fracking sites is likely to be severely curtailed. Even so, from the data presented here, we argue that the major issue regarding water use is the shifting of the resource from society to industry and the demonstrable lack of supply-side price signal that would demand that the industry reduce or stabilize its water demand per unit of energy produced. Thus, in the US context alone, there is considerable evidence that the human right to water will be seriously undermined by the growth of the unconventional oil and gas industry, and given its spread around the globe this could soon become a global human rights issue.

Microbiological Water Methods: Quality Control Measures for Federal Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act Regulatory Compliance

2014 ◽  
Vol 97 (2) ◽  
pp. 567-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patsy Root ◽  
Margo Hunt ◽  
Karla Fjeld ◽  
Laurie Kundrat
Keyword(s):  
Quality Control ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Clean Water Act ◽  
Regulatory Compliance ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Clean Water ◽  
Safe Drinking Water ◽  
Safe Drinking Water Act ◽  
Specificity And Sensitivity ◽  
Microbiological Methods

Abstract Quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) data are required in order to have confidence in the results from analytical tests and the equipment used to produce those results. Some AOAC water methods include specific QA/QC procedures, frequencies, and acceptance criteria, but these are considered to be the minimum controls needed to perform a microbiological method successfully. Some regulatory programs, such as those at Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Title 40, Part 136.7 for chemistry methods, require additional QA/QC measures beyond those listed in the method, which can also apply to microbiological methods. Essential QA/QC measures include sterility checks, reagent specificity and sensitivity checks, assessment of each analyst's capabilities, analysis of blind check samples, and evaluation of the presence of laboratory contamination and instrument calibration and checks. The details of these procedures, their performance frequency, and expected results are set out in this report as they apply to microbiological methods. The specific regulatory requirements of CFR Title 40 Part 136.7 for the Clean Water Act, the laboratory certification requirements of CFR Title 40 Part 141 for the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the International Organization for Standardization 17025 accreditation requirements under The NELAC Institute are also discussed.

scholarly journals Assessment of bacteriological quality of drinking water from various sources in Amritsar district of northern India

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (08) ◽  
pp. 844-848 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sita Malhotra ◽  
Shailpreet K Sidhu ◽  
Pushpa Devi
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Human Consumption ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Safe Water ◽  
Bacteriological Quality ◽  
Northern India ◽  
Quality Of Water ◽  
The Government ◽  
High Level

Introduction: Safe water is a precondition for health and development and is a basic human right, yet it is still denied to hundreds of millions of people throughout the developing world. Water-related diseases caused by insufficient safe water supplies, coupled with poor sanitation and hygiene, cause 3.4 million deaths a year, mostly in children. Methodology: The present study was conducted on 1,317 drinking water samples from various water sources in Amritsar district in northern India. All the samples were analyzed to assess bacteriological quality of water for presumptive coliform count by the multiple tube test. Results: A total of 42.9% (565/1,317) samples from various sources were found to be unfit for human consumption. Of the total 565 unsatisfactory samples, 253 were from submersible pumps, 197 were from taps of piped supply (domestic/public), 79 were from hand pumps, and 36 were from various other sources A significantly high level of contamination was observed in samples collected from submersible pumps (47.6%) and water tanks (47.3%), as these sources of water are more exposed and liable to contamination. Conclusions: Despite continuous efforts by the government, civil society, and the international community, over a billion people still do not have access to improved water resources. Bacteriological assessment of all sources of drinking should be planned and conducted on regular basis to prevent waterborne dissemination of diseases.

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