Testing labs in Las Rozas de Madrid

APA (Asociación para la Prevención de Accidentes — Association for the Prevention of Accidents) is a Spanish nonprofit association founded on June 2, 1960, with its headquarters in Donostia-San Sebastián (Basque Country, Guipúzcoa) and a branch office in Las Rozas de Madrid. Its core mission is the promotion of occupational health and safety through the study, dissemination, and adoption of measures that guarantee worker health, welfare, and safety across all industrial sectors. Over more than six decades, APA has grown into one of Spain's foremost technical bodies in industrial hygiene, offering laboratory analytical services, professional training, and workplace risk assessment to employers and occupational health professionals throughout the country. APA established Spain's very first National Industrial Hygiene Analytical Laboratory (Laboratorio de Higiene Industrial Analítica Nacional) in 1978, making it a true pioneer in the country's occupational health sector. This original center in San Sebastián remains the cornerstone of APA's technical capabilities, and has since been complemented by a second fully equipped laboratory in Las Rozas de Madrid. Together, these two facilities constitute a nationally recognized analytical network whose primary purpose is the identification, evaluation, and control of chemical and biological contaminants arising from occupational environments. The laboratory team combines decades of specialist expertise with modern instrumentation to deliver fast, reliable, and defensible results, with turnaround times reported to be under 24 hours for priority requests. The laboratories' core scope covers comprehensive analysis of environmental samples collected from workstations and production areas across diverse industrial sectors. Key services include the determination of heavy metals — including lead, chromium, nickel, manganese, cadmium, and arsenic — in workplace air and on surfaces, as well as the quantification of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) spanning a wide range of solvent families: ketones, aldehydes (notably formaldehyde), glycols, aromatic hydrocarbons, and chlorinated solvents. Inorganic substances including respirable crystalline silica (quartz and cristobalite) and nuisance and inhalable dusts are quantified using gravimetric, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and infrared spectrometric methods aligned with reference procedures published by the INSST (Instituto Nacional de Seguridad y Salud en el Trabajo), NIOSH (USA), and IFA (Germany). APA has developed particular depth in asbestos and mineral fiber analysis, an area of critical occupational and regulatory significance in Spain. The laboratory is authorized by the INSST to determine asbestos fibers in air, bulk building materials, and surface dust samples. Analytical methods include phase-contrast optical microscopy (PCM) for fiber counting and scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) for fiber identification and characterization according to ISO 14966. APA is among only a handful of Spanish laboratories to operate its own SEM instrument in-house, enabling rigorous fiber typing and quantification that meets the most stringent regulatory and client requirements. Additionally, the laboratory holds authorization from the Spanish mining authority to analyze dust and respirable crystalline silica samples from activities governed by Spain's General Mining Safety Regulations (Reglamento General de Normas Básicas de Seguridad Minera). APA's analytical quality system is underpinned by multiple internationally recognized accreditations. Both the San Sebastián and Madrid laboratories are accredited by ENAC (Entidad Nacional de Acreditación), Spain's national accreditation body, in accordance with UNE-EN ISO/IEC 17025:2017, under accreditation numbers 261/LE535 and 261/LE2551 respectively. In addition, APA holds accreditation from the AIHA (American Industrial Hygiene Association) under accreditation number 101978, a prestigious international recognition positioning APA among a select group of European laboratories meeting North American occupational hygiene laboratory performance standards. ISO 9001:2015 certification, granted by Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance, governs the management system for chemical and biological contaminant analysis, providing clients with additional assurance of process consistency and continuous improvement. To validate ongoing analytical performance and comparability, APA's laboratories participate regularly in external proficiency testing programs organized by leading national and international reference bodies, including INSST, NIOSH, and IFA. These interlaboratory exercises cover metals, dust, mineral fibers, respirable crystalline silica, and organic vapors, benchmarking APA's results against internationally accepted performance criteria. APA also supports the analytical chain upstream, having published a comprehensive client-facing sampling guide (Guía de Toma de Muestras de Contaminantes Químicos) and launched a digital industrial hygiene management platform (APA Higiene 360°) to streamline sample registration, chain-of-custody tracking, and results delivery. APA's client base spans manufacturing, metalworking, construction (particularly where asbestos abatement or silica-generating trades are involved), mining, chemical processing, painting and surface finishing, and any other industry sector where workers may be exposed to chemical or biological occupational agents. The association also delivers advanced training programs on industrial hygiene agent evaluation and sampling methodology, equipping occupational health and safety professionals with the knowledge to design defensible monitoring strategies. For organizations requiring accredited, legally recognized data for regulatory compliance with occupational exposure limits (OELs), risk assessments, or litigation support, APA offers a combination of technical depth, dual national and international accreditation, and more than four decades of reference laboratory experience that makes it one of the most credible occupational hygiene testing partners available in Spain.

ISO/IEC 17025 accredited by ENAC (No. LE1366) testing laboratory (accreditation status: active). Accredited test areas include: Bio Biocompatibility; Em Emc Emi. Located at 28232, Las Rozas de Madrid, Spain.

ISO/IEC 17025 accredited by ENAC (No. LE2504) testing laboratory (accreditation status: active). Accredited test areas include: Transport; Transport Rail Dynamic; Transport Rail Noise. Located at 28290, Las Rozas de Madrid, Spain.

ISO/IEC 17025 accredited by ENAC (No. LE1526) testing laboratory (accreditation status: active). Accredited test areas include: Chemical Elemental Analysis; Water; Water Drinking; Water Legionella; Water Wastewater. Located at 28232, Las Rozas de Madrid, Spain.

Tentamus Laboratorio Control (Laboratorio Control Microbiológico y Químico), part of the Tentamus Group, is a Spanish laboratory providing analytical services for the agri-food, environmental, cosmetic and nutraceutical sectors, including water analysis (Legionella to ISO 11731) and HACCP support.