ISO/IEC 17025:2005 touched on an impartiality requirement, but only briefly. Objectivity is the absence or resolution of conflicts of interest to prevent adverse influence on laboratory activities. The remainder of this article takes a deeper dive into these three areas of ISO/IEC 17025, and what that means for cannabis testing laboratories.
ISO 17025 2017 UPDATES UPDATE
The most recent update keeps many of the legacy standards from 2005, but adds several components – specifically requirements for impartiality, risk assessment and assessing measurement uncertainty. The standard was updated in 2005, and again in 2017. ISO/IEC 17025 was first issued in 1999 by the International Organization for Standardization. As a consequence, many cannabis testing laboratories are taking note of recent changes to ISO/IEC 17025 standards. States that require testing laboratories to attain ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation represent some of the largest and most sophisticated cannabis regulatory structures in the country, including California, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada and Ohio. Of those states, 18 require cannabis testing laboratories to be accredited – with the vast majority requiring ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation. There are currently 26 states in the United States (also Canada) that require medical or adult-use cannabis to be tested as of February 2019. Developed to promote confidence in the operation of laboratories, the standard is now being used as a key prerequisite to operate as a cannabis lab in many states. The standard is applicable to all labs regardless of the number of personnel or the extent of the scope of testing activities. It is applicable to all organizations performing tests including cannabis labs. It covers testing performed using standard methods, non-standard methods and laboratory-developed methods. ISO/IEC 17025:2005 specifies the general requirements for the competence to carry out tests including sampling. For cannabis testing laboratories, this trend has been especially pronounced with the increasing number of states that require accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025.Īs of 2017 there were nearly 68,000 laboratories accredited to ISO/IEC 17025, making it the single most important benchmark for testing laboratories around the world.
Because it provides consistent, turnkey standards and third-party verification, accreditation is quickly emerging as an important tool for regulators. As state cannabis regulatory frameworks across the country continue to evolve, accreditation is becoming increasingly important.
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