Quality of
measurements made in
chemistry and other areas is an important issue in today’s world as measurements influence
quality of life
Quality of life (QOL) is defined by the World Health Organization as "an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards ...
,
cross-border trade
Border trade, in general, refers to the flow of goods and services across the border between different jurisdictions. In this sense, border trade is a part of the normal trade that flows through the ordinary export/import legal and logistical fram ...
and
commerce
Commerce is the large-scale organized system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions directly and indirectly related to the exchange (buying and selling) of goods and services among two or more parties within local, regional, nation ...
. In this respect, EN ISO 17025 is the main standard used by testing and calibration laboratories as to appropriately tackle
quality management
Quality management ensures that an organization, product or service consistently functions well. It has four main components: quality planning, quality assurance, quality control and quality improvement. Quality management is focused not ...
related issues. While chapter four of the standard deals with management requirements, chapter five describes requirements for technical competence. Management related issues can be found in other standards as well e.g.
ISO 9000
The ISO 9000 family is a set of five quality management systems (QMS) standards that help organizations ensure they meet customer and other stakeholder needs within statutory and regulatory requirements related to a product or service. ISO 90 ...
, however the technical requirements are specific for calibration and testing laboratories.
Technical requirements
As for technical competence, the following topics are especially important:
*
sampling
* traceability of measurement result
* validation of measurement procedure
*
measurement uncertainty
* participation in interlaboratory comparisons
* internal
quality control.
As it is important to have globally harmonised approach to the above-mentioned topics, various training and teaching material have been developed at the
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
an level, as to support implementation e.g. by EURACHEM and by TrainMiC.
See also
*
Analytical chemistry
Analytical chemistry studies and uses instruments and methods to separate, identify, and quantify matter. In practice, separation, identification or quantification may constitute the entire analysis or be combined with another method. Separati ...
*
Metrology
References
* Bettencourt da Silva, R., Bulska, E., Godlewska-Zylkiewicz, B., Hedrich, M., Majcen, N., Magnusson, B., Marincic, S., Papadakis, I., Patriarca, M., Vassileva, E., Taylor, P., Analytical measurement: measurement uncertainty and statistics; , 2012.
* Majcen N., Taylor P. (Editors): Practical examples on traceability, measurement uncertainty and validation in chemistry, Vol 1; , 2010.
* Majcen N., Taylor P., T. Martisius (Editors): Practical examples on traceability, measurement uncertainty and validation in chemistry, Vol 2; , 2011.
* EURACHEM/CITAC Guide: Measurement uncertainty arising from sampling, 2007.
* R.Salzer, »How we assure quality in teaching analytical chemistry«, Anal Bioanal Chem., 2007.
{{refend
Analytical chemistry
Quality control