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The Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) reached another milestone when its Chemical Laboratory became the very first laboratory in Sri Lanka to be awarded international accreditation in compliance with ISO 17025 Standard. Today, when the country is striving to maintain its edge in highly competitive international markets this is no doubt a big asset for export industries.

An internationally recognised testing facility will strengthen buyer confidence in Sri Lanka while enhancing our country's image as an exporter of quality products. The export of agricultural products such as tea, coconut products and manufactured products such as garments and leather constitute important avenues for earning foreign exchange to our country.

Though in the post GATT/WTO scenario tariff and trade barriers are becoming irrelevant there is an increasing threat to our export industries through non-tariff barriers in the form of chemical residues in exported commodities.

The problem of unacceptable levels of chemical residues has often threatened and on several occasions halted, the movement of such goods from exporting countries. Pesticide residues in agricultural crops, levels of preservatives in leather, rubber latex products and carcinogenic dyes in leather and textiles are examples. While there is widespread recognition of the benefits of synthetic pesticides for crop protection, there is, justifiably, increasing concern about their likely adverse effects to health and the environment.

There have been claims for the presence of residues in Sri Lankan produce. Some examples are PCP in latex/coir products, toxic metals in toys, prothiphos in gherkins, lindane in spices, DDT in fish, pesticides in tea but in many instances the validity of such claims is in doubt due to inadequacy of the methods adopted. Though such difficulties were overcome at the cost of time and money, it highlighted the need for maintaining internationally accredited analytical facilities by the exporting countries.

Recognising this important global development, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) under the ongoing "Integrated Industrial Development Support Program for Sri Lanka", with a significant donor contribution from Norway, assisted the strengthening of five testing laboratories in Sri Lanka belonging to the Industrial Technology Institute (ITI), Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI) and the Textile Training and Services Centre (TT&SC).

In addition, support was provided to establish the laboratories along the ISO 17025 Standard and also seek international accreditation from the Swedish Board for Accreditation and Conformity Assessment (SWEDAC).

The ITI Chemical Testing Laboratory-Laboratory Services Group of the Chemical and Environmental Technology Division obtained the prestigious SWEDAC accreditation in June 2002 and is now credited with the distinction of being the very first Sri Lankan laboratory to be accredited by an international agency according to ISO 17025 Standard.

The microbiology laboratory of the Service Group of the Agro Food Technology Division was also audited by the SWEDAC assessors against the ISO 17025 standard and expects to obtain the accreditation status by the end of this month.

The International accreditation would allow ITI to use the SWEDAC logo along with the institution logo in the relevant test reports issued, signifying that the ITI laboratory has the necessary quality system in place and the test results generated are scientifically valid and legally defensible.

With this major achievements the ITI has further consolidated its position as the country's leading laboratory and enabling it to play even a more important role in building the country's image as an exporter of quality products to international markets. (ITI press release)

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