Guidelines in place for recognition of environmental laboratories, MoEF tells NGT

The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) told the National Green Tribunal on Tuesday that a guideline has been prepared for recognition of environmental laboratories and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has been assigned the task of scrutinising the applications received from them.

The CPCB has been entrusted the task of scrutinising the applications received from laboratories to ascertain that they are meeting the pre-requisites and mandatory requirements in respect of infrastructure, human resources, adoption of sampling methods, laboratory practices, mandatory registration/ accreditation/ certification, quality control measures, etc. as prescribed in the guidelines.

"A guideline has been prepared for recognition of environmental laboratories under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and the same was published as CPCB Publication No. LATS/9/2008-2009 in June, 2008. Chapter 6 of this publication. The recognition of laboratories is done following these guidelines," the MoEF told a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel.

The ministry told the NGT that an expert committee, including an external expert, a CPCB expert, CPCB member convenor and an expert member from the ministry as a permanent invitee, is constituted to appraise all proposals.

"The recommendation of the Expert Committee is considered by the competent authority in the CPCB/ MoEF and after due diligence and examination of requisite conditions and acceptance of terms & conditions by the laboratory and the proposed analysts, recognition is granted subject to appropriate terms and conditions. The recognised laboratories are notified through the Gazette of India and these notifications include the name and address of the laboratory, names of government analysts and the period of recognition," the ministry told the tribunal.

It further said that an addendum to the guidelines was issued by which it was made mandatory for laboratories to have either ISO 17025 National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) accreditation or International Organization for Standardization, ISO 9001 certification and Occupation Health and Safety Management System (OHSAS 18001) certification for consideration of recognition under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

"Laboratory accreditation under NABL recognises technical competence of the laboratory for specific tests/ measurements, based on third party assessment and in agreement with international/ national standard/ procedure. Accreditation and thereafter its renewal by NABL are carried out following defined accreditation procedures, regular surveillance and on-site reassessment, as applicable," the ministry said.

The MoEF told the NGT that a provision for joint inspection of the applicant laboratories by a team comprising officers from the MoEF, CPCB and the state pollution control board concerned was originally included in the guidelines of 2008.

"However, further to the addendum of 2011 in respect of mandatory accreditation/ certification and its implementation across all recognised laboratories, MoEF decided to discontinue the provision of joint inspection subject to the laboratory possessing the mandatory accreditation/ certification for all activities in totality prior to submission of application for recognition," it said.

The ministry also told the tribunal that periodic surveillance of the recognised private environmental laboratories is also undertaken by the MoEF to ascertain compliance with terms and conditions, including renewal of mandatory accreditation and certification.

"The major observation of a desktop surveillance exercise carried out during 2017-18 was that many of the laboratories were not timely reporting the discontinuation of the notified government analysts. Non-compliant laboratories, which were due for renewal, were issued show cause/ warning letters," the ministry said.

The report was filed in response to a plea by NGO Social Action for Forest and Environment that contended the environment data generated in the country lacks authenticity and are often fudged to suit requirements, making it ineffective in pollution mitigation.

The NGO had said one of the main reasons for generation of poor quality data and poor monitoring of the environment pollution is cost consideration.

Explaining the issue, it said the cost incurred on the two vital works by green laboratories has been much lower than the actual cost incurred in monitoring environment, sampling data and analysing the same.

Referring to an RTI reply, the NGO had said the task of monitoring quality of water from various sources like rivers, hand pumps and groundwater, besides the air quality and hazardous ingredients of environment, are given to recognised private laboratories.

The NGO had said there was a need to increase transparency and efficiency in the environment monitoring sector and this could be achieved by stringent monitoring and regulating the cost as per the CPCB schedule of rates.

(Image source - PTI)