Vol. 25 No. 3
May - June 2003

Interdisciplinary Harmonized Approach to Metrological Traceability of Chemical Measurement Results

Chemical measurements are important for almost every aspect of our life, including health, food, laboratory medicine, environment, and water and energy resources, as well as science. Chemical measurements affect the world economy at large and are the subject of a number of international mutual recognition agreements and similar arrangements. However, only measurement results where metrological traceability is clearly established can be compared, independent from when and where they were obtained. This project’s objective is to develop common concepts for metrological traceability of measurement results obtained by measurement procedures (techniques) based on sound measurement principles and methods in chemistry as well as physics.

These common concepts shall be:

• applicable to all metrological levels from a basic definition of the "stated reference" (units or others) through metrological institutions preparing and distributing metrological tools, to the field laboratories using metrological tools in their routine work, and to end-users who should know and be able to assess the metrological validity of the results obtained by or reported to them
• applicable to all measurement: routine, research, commercial, ad hoc, etc.
• understandable to a wider measurement community, including students, routine analysts, industry, research and scientific workers, as well as to legislators, accreditation bodies, and other regulatory institutions
• general in nature, thus enabling new emerging fields and techniques to be easily incorporated
• interdisciplinary, thus ensuring common understanding, encouraging cross-fertilization (for instance, between chemistry and physics), and at the same time clearly presenting and addressing specifics of various measurement areas

A document, preferably in the form of an interorganizational harmonized protocol, will constitute the basic outcome of the project. Premises to this project are detailed in the Web pages at the address below and in CI (Vol. 25, No. 2 March-April 2003, p 17).

For more information contact the Task Group Chairman Paul De Bievre <[email protected]> or Ales Fajgelj <[email protected]>, the chairman of the Interdivisional Working Party on Harmonization of Quality Assurance.

www.iupac.org/projects/2001/2001-010-3-500.html
www.iupac.org/projects/2003/2003-004-1-500.html