Laboratory of the Government Chemist LGC

The senior author first became interested in acid-base cements in 1964 when he undertook to examine the deficiencies of the dental silicate cement with a view to improving performance. At that time there was much concern by both dental surgeon and patient at the failure of this aesthetic material which was used to restore front teeth. Indeed, at the time, one correspondent commenting on this problem to a newspaper remarked that although mankind had solved the problem of nuclear energy the same could not be said of the restoration of front teeth. At the time it was supposed that the dental silicate cement was, as its name implied, a silicate cement which set by the formation of silica gel. Structural studies at the Laboratory of the Government Chemist (LGC) soon proved that this view was incorrect and that the cement set by formation of an amorphous aluminium phosphate salt. Thus we became aware of and intrigued by a class of materials that set by an acid-base reaction. It appeared that there was endless scope for the formulation of novel materials based on this concept. And so it proved. 

In the United Kingdom chemical RMs were first produced some time in the late 1960 s at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) Division of Chemical Standards at Teddington. This Division was transferred to the Laboratory of the Government Chemist LGC in November 1978. Early work was based on the development of highly... 

The Promochem Group was the first international specialist supplier of certified reference materials (CRMs) and pharmaceutical reference substances used in environmental, medical and trace element analysis. Their experience provides a viewpoint that echoes, reinforces and expands on many of the trends discussed above (Jenks 1997). From the middle of the 1980 s, sales of CRM by Promochem increased between 10 % and 20 % annually, depending on the market sector and application. Since then National and International Metrology Institutes, such as the now privatized U.K. Laboratory of the Government Chemist (LGC), the European and U.S. Pharmacopoeias, the E.U. IRMM and others have recognized that efficient distribution of RMs, backed by available technical support, is as important as production and certification. Thus, they have moved to spread their influence outside their national origins. The Web and e-commerce will continue to grow as major facilitators of better information dissemination and supply of CRMs. 

Although some of these elements, such as the heater, continuous separator, dehuhhler or microprocessor, are not indispensable, the rest are fundamental to the design of continuous segmented analysers. Although developed primarily for a chnical market, the concepts found many apphcations in the industrial area as well. TTie Laboratory of the Government Chemist (LGC) has estahhshed many automatic analyses for routine use using these concepts [29—31]. 

Hydrocarbon distillates in the gas oil range ( diesel or derv ) are subject to duty when used as a road fuel. Gas oil, which is often identical to diesel oil in hydrocarbon composition, is exempt from duty when used for stationary machines. In order to prevent its misuse as a road fuel, gas oil is marked with a mixture of 1,4-dfhydroxyanthraquinone (quinizarin), 2-fiirfuraldehyde (furfural) and a red dye. An automatic method for the extraction, identification and determination of quinizarin in gas oil has been used hy the Laboratory of the Government Chemist (LGC) for some years. The presence of furfiiral provides evidence for legal prosecution and the numbers of analyses ordered in the UK merit automatic analysis. 

T.J. Farrant Practical Statistics for the Analytical Scientist-a Bench Glide. Royal Society of Chemistry for the Laboratory of the Government Chemist (LGC), Teddington 1997... 

In recent years Chile has fallen foul of both the United States (because a grape crop allegedly contained cyanide De Bievre 1993) and the European Union (because shrimp that contained cadmium below the limit of defensible detection was rejected), and each time Chile suffered losses in the millions of dollars. In a survey of users of analytical chemical results, the Laboratory of the Government Chemist (LGC) in the United Kingdom found that 29% of the respondents to a survey had suffered loss as a result of poor analytical chemistry, and 12% of these claimed very serious losses (King 1995). 

The Laboratory of the Government Chemist (LGC) and Eurachem-UK has developed a guidance document with definitions and step-by-step instructions for equipment qualification [2]. 

Systems of classification very often follow the application fields, e.g. the catalogues of the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM), the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), Laboratory of the Government Chemist (LGC), etc. or the database for certified reference materials COMAR. In all application fields like food and agriculture, environment, health and safety, industry and services, etc., reference materials are used for ... 

INPL participates in the Brewing Analytes Proficiency Testing Scheme (BAPS) organized by the Laboratory of the Government Chemist (LGC) in the United Kingdom. So, once a month INPL analysts (co-authors of the present article B. Anisimov and I. Goldfeld) perform etha-... 

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