Purpose:
In addition to the safety concern of broken glass, cracked or broken containers can impact sample integrity in various ways such as:
- Introducing contamination to the sample
- Loss of volatile compounds
- Loss of sample volume
HELPFUL PACKING TIPS
- Provide additional containers of sample where feasible
- Use the bubble wrap provided with the bottle supplies to repackage containers
- Cooler contents should be secured with additional packaging material to prevent movement (horizontal, lateral, vertical) once the cooler is sealed
- If possible, alternate glass and plastic sets of bottles
- Suggest avoid using ice as a packing material, as containers will become mobile once ice has melted
PROCESS:
When additional containers are available, they are used for analysis and the broken container is salvaged (if possible) or discarded.
When no additional containers are available and the lab receives a sample with cracked bottles/lids for volatile analyses and severely cracked bottles requiring taping or transfer, Bureau Veritas Laboratories contacts the client for approval to proceed with any analysis. A comment appears on the Certificate of Analysis regarding use of the container and it’s condition.
In some cases where insufficient volume remains, the lab requests a priority of analyses before processing the samples. All broken and cracked bottles and/or lids will be noted.
All cracked bottles or lids are noted as a deficiency on a particular submission.
In the case of cracked bottles/lids for volatiles and severely cracked bottles requiring taping or transfer of the sample into another container, the client will be notified prior to the initiation of analysis for approval to proceed.
