Philippines’ success in interlaboratory comparisons of nanoparticle geometric size measurements

Nanotechnology is emerging in the Philippines as there are growing industries where nanomaterials are used as part of a commercial product's components. With this, there are growing demands for testing of nano-enabled products, especially the nanoparticle geometric size measurements to support the claims declared by manufacturers, a consideration in nanosafety. Competence of analytical laboratories is of primary concern to ensure that accurate and reliable test results are used in conformity assessments in the field of nanotechnology. As per clause 7.7.2 of the international standard ISO/IEC 17025:2017, interlaboratory comparisons can be participated as means to compare performance with other laboratories. International interlaboratory comparison was participated by the Philippines and promising results were obtained which are at par with countries with established methodologies in testing nanomaterials. Locally, the first interlaboratory comparison was organized. Satisfactory results were obtained but areas for improvement were also determined for some of the participating laboratories.