Assessment of compliance of analytical results with regulatory or specification limits

 In some cases the compliance of a measurement result with a limit value will be unclear and a 'judgment' is required based on agreed criteria. Recent developments in the estimation of measurement uncertainty have opened up the possibility of a more rational approach to such problems. This paper briefly reviews some of the issues and current practices and suggests a pragmatic way forward. Received: 26 August 1998 · Accepted: 31 August 1998