The role of metrology in making chemistry sustainable

Sustainable development is the new design of an old concept, now emerging from the acute endangering of our habitat. Coined by the Brundlandt Commission in 1987, sustainable development was defined as ‘Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (World commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1987). It appeared on the world stage during the UNO Earth Summit in Rio, 1992. Sustainability became the key term of the ‘Agenda 21’ (United Nations Conference for Education and Development, Earth Summit, Agenda 21, The United Nations Programme of action for Sustainable Development, United Nations, New York, 1992). The ‘Agenda 21’ is adopted by 178 states, although to date not all signatories have ratified the Agenda. Sustainable solutions should aim to harmonize ecological equilibrium, economic stability, and social harmony. But in the course of the years, the interpretation of the concept became more and more complicated and its context is becoming fuzzy. Extended version of a presentation given during a Baltic University Programme's international workshop on ‘Sustainable Chemistry and Biochemistry’ at St. Marienthal, Germany, February 15–17, 2005     

The role of metrology in chemistry in the upholding of public health and food safety in Hong Kong

The Government Laboratory has been involved in the provision of analytical and advisory services since its formal establishment in 1913 in support of the needs of the community and the commitments of the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China. One of the earliest areas of work involves the testing of food samples for maintenance of public health and food safety. Remarkable advances in technology in recent years coupled with the introduction of new policies and regulations, the launching of new international standards and requirements have all contributed to significant and ever-rising demand of accurate, specific, comparable and traceable measurements using the latest technologies for a wide variety of additives, contaminants, residues and genetically modified ingredients in food.Metrology, the science of measurement, has always played a key role in the development and validation of analytical methodologies in the Government Laboratory for the realization of its measurements to the highest level of accuracies and traceability to internationally recognized standards. Besides the application of the latest analytical technologies such as isotope dilution mass spectrometry, tandem mass spectrometry, real-time polymerase chain reactions, etc., the Analytical and Advisory Services Division of the Laboratory develops a quality assurance system in full compliance with the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025 and endeavours to ensure that every analytical methods are validated with the best applicable means and are fit for the intended purposes. In this presentation, the role and application of metrology in chemistry in the measurements pertaining to public health and food safety work undertaken by the Government Laboratory are discussed.Presented at International Symposium on Metrology in Chemistry, 2004 Beijing, China.     

Uncertainty – The key topic of metrology in chemistry

 At the Second EURACHEM Workshop on Measurement Uncertainty in Chemical Analysis the author had the pleasure of chairing a working group on chemical metrology. This note presents some propositions arising from the preparation of, as well as from the discussion at and after, the working group session. Received: 29 October 1997 · Accepted: 26 November 1997     

Is metrology in chemistry really special?

 According to the the European Commission there are differences between metrology in physics and chemical/biological measurements. In this paper it is shown that these alleged differences are only apparent and are not fundamental.     

Quality system implementation in the National Metrology Institute of Montenegro

Accreditation and Quality Assurance - Accreditation of calibration laboratories is a means for achieving competence recognition and assuring customers that their calibration services are accurate...     

Metrology in Africa: role of the CAFMET

This article presents the CAFMET (African Committee of Metrology), a non-profit organization that aims to meet the needs of African countries in the field of metrology. Its objectives are to spread a metrology culture in Africa via various domains in metrology such as, analysis, tests, and calibration. The difficulties of the development of metrology in Africa and the different activities, events and projects of the CAFMET are all presented.     

Chemical metrology, chemistry and the uncertainty of chemical measurements

Chemical results normally involve traceability to two reference points, the specific chemical entity and the quantity of this entity. Results must also be traceable back to the original sample. As a consequence, any useful estimation of uncertainty in results must include components arising from any lack of specificity of the method, the variation between repeats of the measurement and the relationship of the result to the original sample. Chemical metrology does not yet incorporate uncertainty arising from any lack of specificity from the method selected or the traceability of the result to the original sample. These sources of uncertainty may however have much more impact on the reliability of the result than will any uncertainty associated with the repeatability of the measurement. Uncertainty associated with sampling may amount to 50–1000% of the reported result. Chemical metrology must be expanded to include estimations of uncertainty associated with lack of specificity and sampling. Received: 29 May 2001 Accepted: 17 December 2001     

A practical approach to metrology in chemistry and biology

 The inherent difficulties of measurement in chemistry and biology have made it necessary to open discussion forums solely devoted to bench level work. This contribution summarises the conclusions of the Standards, Measurements and Testing Project (SMT4-CT96-6505) of the European Commission, devoted to the application of metrology in chemistry and biology. The objective of this project was to provide orientations and some recommendations which could partially satisfy end-users needs in the near future. Received: 29 September 1998 · Accepted: 21 December 1998     

Simple principles for metrology in chemistry: identifying and counting

We examine the problem of quantitative chemical measurement for well-identified substances, discuss the quantity called ‘amount of substance’, the means of expressing it, and its physical SI unit the mole. The everyday quantity which is a number of entities may be measured by the performance of two operations (identification and counting), the results of which may be communicated with two items of information (their name and the number of entities). We distinguish nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio scales of measurement and apply these to counting, referring to ordinal and cardinal numbers and Helmholtz’ analysis of measurement. Counting may be by direct serial numeration, direct parallel numeration, or comparative numeration. We discuss the limitations of serial numeration, the possibilities of parallel numeration, and the advantages of comparative numeration where a unit for counting in multiples (such as the analyst’s mole) may be used to define a scale on which equal numbers of objects correspond to equal values of some other physical quantity. We conclude that the numeration of very large numbers of objects is readily achieved but with unavoidable uncertainty, using operations which compare numbers of entities either to numbers of other entities or to some other quantity which accurately models numbers of entities.