What Do all of Those Fracronyms Mean?

A HELPFUL RESOURCE WHEN READING TECHNICAL REPORTS

FRACRONYMS

°C	Degrees Celsius
AA	Atomic Absorption
ANSI/ASQC	American National Standards Institute/American Society for Quality Control
ASQC	American Society for Quality Control
ASTM	American Society for Testing and Materials
Audit	A documented investigative evaluation used to determine the degree of compliance with established procedures and guidelines, applied to specific analytical processes.
BFB	Bromofluorobenzene
BNA	Base, neutral and acid
BOD	Biochemical Oxygen Demand
BS	Blank Spike, equivalent to LFB and LCS
BTEX	Benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylene
CA	Corrective Action, the measures taken to correct a situation that is out of the control limits set by QC procedures
CAL	Calibration standard, a solution prepared from the dilution of stock standard solutions. The CAL solutions are used to calibrate the instrument response with respect to analyte concentration.
CARB	California Air Resources Board
CAS	Chemical Abstract Service
CATC	Cyanide amenable to chlorination
CCC	Calibration check compound
CCV	Continuing calibration verification
CFR	Code of Federal Regulations
CI	Chemical ionization
Cl2	Chlorine
CLP	Contract Laboratory Program
COC	Chain of Custody
COD	Chemical oxygen demand
CRDL	Contract Required Detection Limit
CV	Coefficient of variation
CVAA	Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy
DBCP	l,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane
DBF	Dibenzofurans
D/DBP	Disinfectants and disinfection by-products
DFTPP	Decafluorotriphenylphosphine
Dissolved	The concentration of analyte in an aqueous sample that will pass through a 0.45 um membrane filter assembly prior to sample acidification.
DLR	Detection Limit for Reporting purposes, established by the California
	Department of Health Services for potable water analysis.
DO	Dissolved oxygen
DOC	Demonstration of capability
DOC	Dissolved Organic Carbon
DOE	Department of Energy
DOT	Department of Transportation
DOD	Department of Defense
DQIs	Data Quality Indicators
DQOs	Data Quality Objectives
DRO	Diesel-range organics
ECD	Electron capture detector
EDB	1,2-dibromoethane
EDC	Endocrine Disrupting Compound
EDD	Electronic data deliverable
El	Electron impact ionization
ELAP	Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program. A program managed by the State of California, Department of Health Services for accreditation of environmental testing laboratories.
EPA	United States Environmental Protection Agency
FIA	Flow-injection analysis
FID	Flame-ionization detector
FPD	Fame photometric detector
GC/MS	Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry
GFAA	Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy
GPC	Gel-permeation chromatography
GRO	Gasoline-range organics
HAA	Haloacetic acid
HAN	Haloacetonitrile
HDPE	High Density Polyethylene
HPLC	High Performance Liquid Chromatography
HRGC	High Resolution Gas Chromatography
HRMS	High Resolution Mass Spectrometry
IC	Ion Chromatography
IC/MS/MS	Ion Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry
ICAP	Inductively Coupled Argon Plasma Spectroscopy
ICP	Inductively Coupled Plasma
ICP-AES	Inductively Coupled Atomic Emission Spectroscopy
ICP-MS	Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer
ICV	Initial calibration verification
ICS	Interference check sample
IDL	Instrument Detection Limit
IEC	interelement correction factor
IPC	Instrument Performance Check Solution - A solution of the method analyte, used to evaluate the performance of the instrument system with respect to a defined set of method criteria.
ISE	Ion-selective electrode
ISO/IEC	International Standards Organization/International Electrotechnical Commission
LCL	Lower Control Limit
LCS	Laboratory control sample, equivalent to LFB.
LC/MS/MS	Liquid Chormatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry
LDl and LD2	Laboratory Duplicates - Two aliquots of the same sample taken in the laboratory and analyzed separately with identical procedures. Analyses of LD1 and LD2 indicate precision associated with laboratory procedures, but not with sample collection, preservation, or storage procedures.
LDR	Linear Dynamic Range - The concentration range over which the instrument response to an analyte is linear.
LFB	Laboratory Fortified Blank - An aliquot of LRB to which known quantities of the method analytes are added in the laboratory. The LFB is analyzed exactly like a sample, and its purpose is to determine whether the methodology is in control and whether the laboratory is capable of making accurate and precise measurements.
LFM	Laboratory Fortified Sample Matrix (LFM) - Also known as Matrix Spike. An aliquot of an environmental sample to which a known quantity of the method analyte is added in the laboratory. The LFM is analyzed exactly like a sample, and its purpose is to determine whether the sample matrix contributes bias to the analytical results. The background concentration of the analyte in the sample matrix must be determined in a separate aliquot and the measured value in the LFM corrected for background concentration.
LIMS	Laboratory information management system
LLE	Liquid-liquid extraction
LOD	Limit of detection, equivalent to MDL
LOQ	Limit of quantitation, equivalent to RL, PQL and MRL
LRB	Laboratory Reagent Blank - An aliquot of reagent water or other blank matrices that are treated exactly as a sample including exposure to all glassware, equipment, solvents, reagents, and internal standards that are used with other samples. The LRB is used to determine if the method analyte or other interferences are present in the laboratory environment, reagents, or apparatus.
LWL	Lower Warning Limit
MBAS	Methylene Blue Active Substance
MDL	Method Detection Limit - The minimum concentration of an analyte that can be identified, measured, and reported with 99% confidence that the analyte concentration is greater than zero.
MEK	Methyl ethyl ketone
MRL	Method Reporting Limit, equivalent to RL and PQL
MS	Matrix spike
MSA	Method of standard additions
MSD	Mass-selective detector
MSD	Matrix spike duplicate
MSDS	Material Safety Data Sheet
MS/MS	Multistage mass spectrometry
MTBE	Methyl-tertiary-butyl ether
NELAC	National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Conference
NELAP	National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program
NIOSH	National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
NIST	National Institute for Standards and Technology
NPD	Nitrogen-phosphorus detector
NPDES	National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
OCP	Organochlorine pesticides
OSHA	Occupational Safety and Health Administration
PAH	Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons (or PNA)
PBDE	Polybrominated diphenyl ethers
PBMS	Performance Based Measurement System
PC	Personal computer
PCBs	Polychlorinated biphenyls
PCDD	Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins
PCDF	Polychlorinated dibenzofurans
PID	Photoionization detection
PPCP	Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products
PQL	Practical Quantitation Limit
PT	Proficiency Testing
RF	Response Factor
QA	Quality Assurance
QAP	Quality Assurance Program
QAPP	Quality Assurance Program Plan
QAPjP	Quality Assurance Project Plan
QC	Quality Control
QCS	Quality Control Sample - A solution of the method analyte of known concentration, which is used to fortify an aliquot of LRB or sample matrix. The QCS is obtained from a source external to the laboratory and different from the source of the calibration standards. It is used to check either laboratory or instrument performance.
RL	Reporting limit
RPD	Relative percent difference
RSD	Relative standard deviation
RT	Retention time
SCAQMD	South Coast Air Quality Management District
SI	International System of Units
SIM	Selected-ion monitoring
SOC	Synthetic organic chemical
SOP	Standard Operating Procedure
SPCC	System Performance Check Compounds
SPE	Solid-phase extraction
SPME	Solid-phase microextraction
SRM	Standard Reference Material
SUR	Surrogate compound,
SVOA	Semivolatile organics analysis
TCD	Thermal conductivity detector
TCDD	Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin
TCDF	Tetrachlorodibenzofuran
TCLP	Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure
TDS	Total dissolved solids
TEM	Transmission electron microscopy
TIC	Tentatively identified compounds
TKN	Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen
TOC	Total Organic Carbon
TOX	Total Organic Halides
TPH	Total petroleum hydrocarbon
TPH-D	Total petroleum hydrocarbons as diesel
TRPH	Total recoverable petroleum hydrocarbon
TSS	Total suspended solids
UCL	Upper Control Limit
UV	Ultraviolet
UV/VIS	Ultraviolet/visible-light
UWL	Upper Warning Limit
VOA	Volatile Organic Analyte
VOC	Volatile organic compound(s)
WET	Waste Extraction Test (California leaching test)
WET	Whole effluent toxicity
WP	Water Pollution Performance Evaluation Samples
WS	Water Supply Performance Evaluation Samples
ZHE	Zero-headspace extraction SOURCE:WECK LAB SINC