Translations into more than 20 languages of the video produced to support World Accreditation Day (#WAD2019) celebrations on 9 June are now available from the https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM-atM-_CUJlfCfhKCiYl5NumS53bP5cN.

The theme this year focuses on how accreditation provides added value to supply chains. The materials for supporting the promotion and celebration of this event including a poster, brochure, joint statement and the video are available for use from https://ilac.org/news-and-events/world-accreditation-day-2019/

The latest edition of the bi-annual ILAC Newsletter, Issue 55 – April 2019, has now been published. 

The newsletter includes information on the international, regional and national updates on accreditation and conformity assessment from ILAC members and liaisons, as well as the ILAC Chair and Secretariat.

World Accreditation Day (#WAD2019) will be celebrated again this year on 9 June. This global initiative established by ILAC and IAF aims to raise awareness of the importance of accreditation.

The theme this year focuses on how accreditation provides added value to supply chains. The materials for supporting the promotion and celebration of this event including a poster, brochure, joint statement and video are now available for your use from https://ilac.org/news-and-events/world-accreditation-day-2019/

Ghana National Accreditation Service (GhaNAS), Ghana, is welcomed as an Affiliate member of ILAC.

We welcome GhaNAS and look forward to working with our GhaNAS colleagues.

As a result of a recent ballot, ILAC P8:03/2019 ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement (Arrangement): Supplementary Requirements for the Use of Accreditation Symbols and for Claims of Accreditation Status by Accredited Conformity Assessment Bodies has been published.

This document has been developed and recently revised to ensure a more uniform approach to the use of accreditation symbols and the way in which an accredited CAB may refer to its accreditation status and make claims in relation to the ILAC MRA. The agreed implementation period for the requirements included in this latest revision is March 2020.

The latest version of ILAC P8 is available here

Associação Brasileira De Avaliaçã Da Conformidade (Brazilian Conformity Assessment Association) (ABRAC), Brazil, is welcomed as a Stakeholder member of ILAC.

We welcome ABRAC and look forward to working with our ABRAC colleagues.

If you are involved in (or interested in) testing liquid nicotine containers for compliance with restricted flow provisions of the USA Poison Prevention Packaging Act (PPPA) then the following announcement and test protocol is of importance.

On March 8, 2019, the Office of Compliance and Field Operations at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a Notification of Nicotine Packaging Test Parameters that CPSC staff will use to assess compliance with the restricted flow provisions for liquid nicotine containers.

The test protocol is available from: https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-public/NoticeofRestrictedFlowTP.March82019.pdf

Please note: This notification is not related to applications for CPSC acceptance for listing at https://www.cpsc.gov/cgi-bin/labsearch/ since that list is maintained only for children’s products safety rules.

If you have any questions regarding this announcement, please contact Compliance Officer Stephen Lee at slee@cpsc.gov or 301-504-7844.

IARM, the Accreditation Institute of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has changed its name to Institute for Accreditation of the Republic of North Macedonia (IARNM) as of 22 February 2019.

We look forward to continuing working with our IARNM colleagues

A database of questions and answers covering examples of the implementation of clauses of ISO/IEC 17020:2012 Conformity assessment — Requirements for the operation of various types of bodies performing inspection is now available from https://ilac.org/about-ilac/faqs/. The questions are based on real scenarios that have been submitted by both accreditation and inspection bodies to the ILAC Inspection Committee. The questions have been reviewed and discussed by the members of the Committee and the agreed responses are included in the database.

The database is searchable using the clause number of the standard as well as topic.

ILAC and the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC) re-signed the ILAC-IFCC Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 14 January 2019.

The re-signing of this MoU reinforces the ongoing commitment of ILAC and IFCC to promote and cooperate to achieve common goals in the area of medical laboratory accreditation using ISO 15189 and related medical reference laboratory activities using ISO 15195.

A copy of the ILAC-IFCC MoU is available here.