4. Interpretation and reliability of analyses

Until a few years ago, water analyses were limited to major elements. What's more, most laboratories took the samples themselves. The development of increasingly sophisticated analytical techniques, the list of elements to be measured and the detection limits to be reached have forced laboratories to become increasingly specialized.

This phenomenon of specialization has meant that :

• samplers are no longer analysts;

• contact between samplers and analysts is fairly rare;

• the sampling operation is becoming increasingly important;

• the remoteness of sampling points and the automation of analyses mean that samples have to be stored ;

• analyses are carried out by several laboratories at different...