Report of the second ICES intercomparison exercise on the determination of trace metals in suspended particulate matter

At its meeting in Copenhagen in 1987, the ICES Working Group on Marine Sediments in Relation to Pollution (WGMS) decided to distribute a questionnaire to determine how many laboratories would be interested in participating in an intercomparison exercise on the determination of trace metals in small amounts of suspended matter. According to the responses to the questionnaire, 60 laboratories were interested in participating in such an intercomparison exercise, although several of them expressed conditions for their participation. Later, a further five laboratories expressed interest in participating. At the WGMS meeting in Savannah in 1989, it was agreed to carry out the first phase of a sequence of intercomparison exercises on the determination of trace metals in suspended particulate matter. Jens Skei, on behalf of the Norwegian lnstitute of Water Research, accepted the invitation to organize this first phase of the intercomparison exercise. The laboratories were asked to perform a preliminary exercise using their own standard reference material, certified for trace metals, or any other well-characterized material. They should we'igh out a minimum of three sub-samples in the range l - 5 mg, and analyze them for the metals for which certified values exist. Once the laboratory had achieved the ability to analyze such small samples, they should notify the coordinator and request the intercomparison material. The deadline for this preliminary exercise was set at 30 June 1989.