@article{3026103,
    title = "Multi-year inter-laboratory exercises for the analysis of illicit drugs and metabolites in wastewater: Development of a quality control system",
    author = "van Nuijs, A.L.N. and Lai, F.Y. and Been, F. and Andres-Costa, M.J. and Barron, L. and Baz-Lomba, J.A. and Berset, J.-D. and Benaglia, L. and Bijlsma, L. and Burgard, D. and Castiglioni, S. and Christophoridis, C. and Covaci, A. and de Voogt, P. and Emke, E. and Fatta-Kassinos, D. and Fick, J. and Hernandez, F. and Gerber, C. and González-Mariño, I. and Grabic, R. and Gunnar, T. and Kannan, K. and Karolak, S. and Kasprzyk-Hordern, B. and Kokot, Z. and Krizman-Matasic, I. and Li, A. and Li, X. and Löve, A.S.C. and Lopez de Alda, M. and McCall, A.-K. and Meyer, M.R. and Oberacher, H. and O'Brien, J. and Quintana, J.B. and Reid, M. and Schneider, S. and Simoes, S.S. and Thomaidis, N.S. and Thomas, K. and Yargeau, V. and Ort, C.",
    journal = "TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry",
    year = "2018",
    volume = "103",
    pages = "34-43",
    publisher = "Elsevier B.V.",
    doi = "10.1016/j.trac.2018.03.009",
    keywords = "Epidemiology;  Filtration;  Laboratories;  Quality assurance;  Wastewater, Analytical procedure;  Concentration values;  Illicit drug;  Inter-laboratory testing;  Laboratory exercise;  Laboratory performance;  Laboratory set-up;  Standard solutions, Quality control, drug metabolite;  illicit drug;  tap water;  water, analytical parameters;  concentration (parameters);  controlled study;  drug dependence;  filtration;  follow up;  human;  laboratory;  performance;  pH;  priority journal;  quality control;  Review;  waste water",
    abstract = "Thirty-seven laboratories from 25 countries present the development of an inter-laboratory testing scheme for the analysis of seven illicit drug residues in standard solutions, tap- and wastewater. Almost 10 000 concentration values were evaluated: triplicates of up to five samples and 26 laboratories per year. The setup was substantially improved with experiences gained across the six repetitions (e.g. matrix type, sample conditions, spiking levels). From this, (pre-)analytical issues (e.g. pH adjustment, filtration) were revealed for specific analytes which resulted in formulation of best-practice protocols for inter-laboratory setup and analytical procedures. The results illustrate the effectiveness of the inter-laboratory setup to assess laboratory performance in the framework of wastewater-based epidemiology. The exercise proved that measurements of laboratories were of high quality (>80% satisfactory results for six out of seven analytes) and that analytical follow-up is important to assist laboratories in improving robustness of wastewater-based epidemiology results. © 2018 Elsevier B.V."
}