Introduction
Jamaican soils are known to be enriched in many elements including arsenic, cadmium and uranium. Suitable reference materials such as NIST 698 Bauxite (Jamaican) do not include reference or information values for measurands of interest such as As, Cd or U. Elevated CRMs such as NIST 2710 introduced effects specific to Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis such as self-shielding. ICENS therefore decided to develop a natural matrix in-house reference material. The parish of Manchester in Jamaica is known for bauxite mining as well as its naturally elevated levels of several trace elements. It was thought that this would be a suitable area to source the material for the “Soil of Jamaica” quality control material.
