Articles

Report of the 33rd Meeting of ISO/REMCO

J.P. Hammond

The 33^rd meeting of the Reference Material Committee of ISO, ISO/REMCO was held in Hangzhou (China) from 3 to 7 May 2010, and was hosted by the Standardisation Administration of China and the China Association of Standardisation. ISO/REMCO now has a membership of 70 members of the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and liaison with 18 international organisations and seven ISO-internal committees. The new ISO TC liaison introduced at this meeting is with ISO/TC 158 “Analysis of gases”, with Dr Adriaan van der Veen acting as the REMCO liaison officer.

QM Column | Issue 22/4 (2010)

On competition

Peter Jenks

ISO Standard ISO 17025 is the cornerstone of the “Measured Once, Trusted Everywhere” concept and the accreditation of labs and testing establishment to ISO 17025 by accreditation bodies underpins the credibility. ISO 17025 is all about facilitating the free movement of goods and services and so helps to eliminate monopolies, cartels and all sorts of anti-competitive activities.

QM Column | Issue 22/3 (2010)

ISO 17025: 12 years of progress?

Peter Jenks

ISO 17025 has been with us now for 12 years and in some industry sectors it is getting hard to find a commercial laboratory offering chemical testing that is not accredited to ISO 17025 for some or all of its scope. In just 12 short years the importance of “quality management” to a laboratory has undergone a seismic shift.

A look back: where did ISO 17025 come from?

QM Column | Issue 22/2 (2010)

The language of "Quality": Recent developments designed to help and promote a common understanding

John Hammond

Starna Scientific Ltd, 52–54 Fowler Road, Hainault Business Park, Hainault, Essex, IG6 3UT, UK

The Irish writer George Bernard Shaw once said: “England and America are two countries divided by a common language”. Whilst this statement generally refers to the over 4000 words in everyday use in the United States that are not in British English, in the scientific world “is it metre or meter”, or for spectroscopists, nanometre or nanometer?

QM Column | Issue 21/6 (2009)

BERM 12: Summer in Oxford

Peter Jenks

The 12^th Biological and Environmental Reference Material symposium (BERM 12) is now over: held at Keble College, Oxford, UK, from 7 to 10 July 2009 it was, based on the feedback received, a resounding success, both scientifically and socially. The weather was perfect and the setting magnificent

QM Column | Issue 21/5 (2009)

Uncertain about uncertainty? There really is nothing to fear!

Peter J. Jenks

the Jenks Partnership, Newhaven House, Junction Road, Alderbury, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP5 3AZ, UK. E-mail: [email protected]

QM Column | Issue 20/6 (2008)

REACH....... into the future? Possible consequences of the EU REACH Directive on the analytical laboratory

Peter J. Jenks

the Jenks Partnership, Newhaven House, Junction Road, Alderbury, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP5 3AZ, UK

QM Column | Issue 20/4 (2008)

The international role of ISO-REMCO: guiding reference materials

John Hammond

In the first of our new Quality Matters columns (Issue 20/1), I introduced the new team of contributors and mentioned that John Hammond would be writing, from his position as the UK Industrial Delegate to the ISO-REMCO Committee, about the workings of that important body and looking to the future following some important decisions taken at the June 2007 meeting in Japan. This is his first of what will be a regular series of reports on the workings of REMCO.

QM Column | Issue 20/3 (2008)

Introducing the New Team

Peter J. Jenks

In the final RM Column, I concluded with the words “To cover this enhanced scope the editorial team will expand: there will be a couple of new names joining me in the preparation of the new column”. In this, the very first Spectroscopy Europe Quality Matters Column, I’m delighted to be able to announce our new columnists as Christopher Burgess and John Hammond.

QM Column | Issue 20/1 (2008)

Quality matters

Peter J. Jenks

This is the 34^th RM Column and over the last seven years we have looked at reference materials (RMs) from just about every possible angle and re-visited some topics more than once. Whilst we have focussed mainly on RMs, over time there has been a change in the way RMs are used and their importance to analytical laboratories.

QM Column | Issue 19/6 (2007)

UK chemical metrology: a new opportunity?

Peter J. Jenks

This may be the first time that Spectroscopy Europe has reported on political upheavals in the UK, but fall out from the departure of Mr Blair and the arrival of Mr Brown has led to reorganisations in Government departments, particularly those that look after research and innovation, including reference materials (RMs)!

QM Column | Issue 19/5 (2007)

Pioneers in UK chemical metrology

Richard P. Meeres

This article explains how BAS developed and maintained its pivotal position in the European iron and steel metrology community and explains in detail the important work done by its volunteers.

QM Column | Issue 19/3 (2007)

Organic analysis vs the matrix

Peter J. Jenks

Peter Jenks scrutinises organic analytes, specifically ubiquitous PAH group.

QM Column | Issue 19/2 (2007)

Matrix dissolution: the wild card in soil analysis

Peter J. Jenks

In this column, it considers how much method validation is really needed.

QM Column | Issue 19/1 (2007)