Abstract

The various environmental regulation directives such as RoHS (restriction of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic products) and WEEE (waste from electrical and electronic equipments) are practically used as the technical barrier in international trade (TBT) of vehicles and electrical and electronic products recently. Regarding such an environmental regulation, Korea Research Institute of Standards Science (KRISS) organized a proficiency testing scheme to establish the reliability of measurement results produced by the relevant research institutes and test laboratories in Korea. Participants were 31 laboratories related to production of the electrical and electronic equipments and mobile vehicles. Two polypropylene samples of pellet type were employed as the proficiency testing materials (PTMs). Cadmium and lead were the analytes chosen among six components regulated in European Union (EU) RoHS directive. The PTMs were sent to the participants by post on September <TEX>$1^{st}$</TEX> 2006, and deadline for results submission were October <TEX>$10^{th}$</TEX> 2006. The results of each laboratory were evaluated in comparison with KRISS reference values using Robustic Z-score and Youden plot methods. The results of the various sample digestion methods were also compared. Most of participants reported good agreement within 10 % range of reference values. However, results from several laboratories showed significant biases from reference values. These laboratories should establish the quality assurance system for improvement of the measurement reliability.