Metrology is a vital infrastructural science which underscores the measurement quality assurance programs in chemical analysis and testing laboratories. Without a rigorous metrological underpinning, the scientific validity and defensibility of analytical measurement results may be challenged, and the credibility of the chemical analysis and testing laboratory may come into question. Because reference material artifacts are commonly used for analytical instrument qualification and calibration, the transparency of their certificates must readily allow laboratory management and scientists to be able to verify the “metrological quality” of each measurement standard, even when it is obtained from accredited suppliers, so that the analytical results can be validated.
Measurement traceability and uncertainty analysis are two important metrological concepts which need to be embraced if the analytical data and measurement results are to be used with confidence in the certification of reference material artifacts intended for analytical instrument calibration and/or method quality control. The degree of transparency of laboratory calibration or test certificates or reports readily reveals if the level of scientific rigor of the laboratory procedure is sufficient to support the claim of metrological traceability of value assignment and uncertainty interval in calibrations and measurand quantification results in sample analysis and testing.
