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Will Brexit affect your laboratory service?

As the United Kingdom prepares to leave the European Union on 30th March 2019 you may be wondering how this will impact your industry. If you currently avail of contract laboratory services in the UK the effects of a no deal Brexit will have a major impact on the ability of these UK based laboratories to provide a reliable analytical testing service to you. Under the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Act 1992, an IPC Licence is required if carrying out specified industrial activities. This licence stipulates the routine monitoring required for emissions to air and water along with other control requirements.

International Courier Transport

The EU Customs Union means goods (and services) can move freely within the EU with no tariffs being applied as they move from one country to another. Without this agreement allowing shipments pass freely between Ireland and the UK, delays to sample transport are inevitable. Aside from the initial expected delays in the first few weeks of “Brexit”, any routine customs checks will likely cause delays to the delivery of samples to UK laboratories. This may prevent samples being tested within the required holding times designed to ensure reliable results.

Sample Preservation & Holding Times

All ISO 17025:2005 accredited laboratories are required to implement BS EN ISO 5667-3:2018 Water quality — Sampling Part 3: Preservation and handling of water samples (ISO 5667-3:2018). This standard specifies requirements for maintaining storage temperature during transport. In addition, the analysis of most water matrices to meet ISO17025 accreditation standard allows in many cases a maximum of 24 hours to get to the laboratory. With delays at border checks and ports, it is expected to become almost impossible to meet these standards.

What are your options?

The best option to avoid any uncertainty caused by transport delays is to use an Irish laboratory. Fitz Scientific is accredited by INAB to ISO 17025 standard for the analysis. You can view a full list of the scope of accreditation currently held. This accreditation is backed by the International Lab Accreditation Co-Operation (ILAC) giving assurances that the analysis provided meets international requirements.

We provide the following benefits to give you peace of mind regarding your licence compliance:

• Wide range of INAB accredited analysis
• Nationwide collection by courier
• Sampling by our expert Field Services Technicians
• Sample containers supplied free of charge
• Fast turnaround of results
• Online Results Portal with 24/7 access to results
• Analysis available 7 days per week
• 100% Irish owned and run

Fitz Scientific offers an extensive scope of accredited analysis of water (potable, surface, ground and effluent), air, food and soil samples in a state of the art laboratory in Drogheda, Co Louth - just an hour from Dublin and no more than 4 hours from anywhere else in the country. Our turnaround times and value are the best in the industry. We have been dedicated to our customer for the last 20 years back up our level of service with an experienced team of analytical experts.

If you would like to enquire about our analytical testing capabilities please contact us at sales@fitzsci.ie.