LGC has announced that its ISO17025 accreditation from the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) has been further extended to include steroids in its Occupational Drug Testing (ODT) suite of tests.

LGC is an international life sciences measurement and testing company with a specialism in testing for drugs of abuse. The ODT team was awarded ISO17025 accreditation for analysis of oral fluid in May 2014.

Simon Hudson, Technical Director for the laboratory and managed services division of LGC commented, “We are proud to extend our ISO17025 accreditation for steroids in human urine samples. Having this further extension acknowledged by an internationally-recognised standard provides further evidence of the quality associated with LGC’s analytical expertise in a growing range of fields. The accreditation provides clear evidence of LGC’s continued proficiency and the ability to adapt to new demands in the growing area of workplace drug testing.”

LGC’s fully-accredited ODT service is based on methodology developed at their Fordham laboratory - previously a WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) accredited laboratory testing for doping substances, including steroids, in human sports.

Screening and confirmatory testing is based on a combination of GC-MS and High Resolution Accurate Mass (HRAM) LC-MS.  The full service now includes traditional testing provision (UKAS accredited urine and oral fluid occupational drugs of abuse testing) and an enhanced testing service for analysis of urine for steroids and the newer Novel Psychoactive Substances, commonly known as ‘legal highs’.

The accreditation recognises the rigorous checks in place at every stage of LGC’s testing process, starting when a sample enters the laboratory through to the issuing of test results which can be traced via a robust chain of custody protocol.

UKAS themselves explain the significance of accreditation on their website, “Accreditation is the only mechanism that determines the technical competence and integrity of the organisations offering testing services. ISO/IEC 17025 not only contains requirements for the quality management system of the organisation but they also include detailed and specific technical criteria for the operation of the technical service including ensuring the competence of personnel.”

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