I worked in environmental chemistry - commercial lab. We did not do tests on humans nor animals but we were constrained by federal law and commercial liability

I worked in environmental chemistry - commercial lab. We did not do tests on humans nor animals but we were constrained by federal law and commercial liability . If the test you were doing was covered by federal law appeared in the CFR ( code of federal regulations) you needed to make if you said you were doing a test that was detailed in law that you followed that procedure in a documented way. If you changed it in a significant way you were engaging in a felony. Then you had some Tests that were not covered by federal regulations- so how do you protect yourself from lawsuits ? ( the fact you could do a test that would cost $100 but the client was making a million dollar decision with the results meant there could be a lot of liability risk)so in those cases where there was no clear regulation you would opt for “industry best practice “ using processes, equipment, reagents that were commonly used for that test by others in the Industry. If you did that then your insurance provider would defend yourself. If you had good documentation you could prove you did the right thing the right way and win the lawsuit. Based on that background I suspect the biggest reason for review boards is liability protection.