National Measuring System

The UK Government has, for more than six years, funded the Valid Analytical Measurement (VAM) Programme, which is aimed at improving the quality and comparability of analytical measurements. The work undertaken within VAM is key to the underpinning of a modern physico-chemical and biochemical National Measurement System, By disseminating the activities of VAM across international boundaries and linking with other national measurement system VAM also aims to ensure the comparability of data worldwide. Thus VAM provides an infrastructure under which reliable measurements can be made for trade, regulation and health and safety provision. 

LGC has a strong interest in the quality of analytical measurements and played a lead role in the development of the UK s initiative on Valid Analytical Measurement (VAM). This is a programme supported by the UK government as part of the DTI programmes supporting the national measurement system. 

The preparation of this book was supported under contract with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) as part of the National Measurement System (NMS) Valid Analytical Measurement (VAM) Programme. The latter aims to improve the quality of analytical measurement in the UK. 

Practically any user of a specific photometric device attempts to calibrate it against suitable reference standards existing in a recognized calibration laboratory. In turn the calibration laboratory should calibrate their standards according to those laid down by laboratories of the national measurement system. Thus, traceability is closely related to the dissemination of units. In Romania the assurance of uniformity and traceability of measurements, as well as the dissemination of units, is co-ordinated by the Romanian National Bureau of Metrology (BRML). Some aspects of traceability and its assurance within a calibration laboratory have been... 

After the signing of the CIPM MRA in 1999, CENAM has also devoted a lot of effort to demonstrate its calibration and measurement capability (CMC), which is required to establish a comparable and internationally recognized national measurement system. This task has implied for CENAM a significant challenge and at the same time strong pressure. In Appendix B of the CIPM MRA the results of Key Comparisons organized by CCQM are compiled and made available at the BIPM Website http //www.bipm.org, which are considered as... 

VAM was launched in 1988 by LGC and today is a multi-million pound programme which forms part of the UK National Measurement System. The original rationale for such a programme remains true today, not just in the UK but also in most developed countries ... 

This work is supported by the UK National Measurement System (NMS) under the Foundation Programme project 4.2 Hydrogenic systems calculable frequency standards . The measurement of the 2S Lamb shift in Si13+ is also a key experiment in a five-year International Collaborative Research Project (ICORP) on Cold Trapped Ions between NPL, the University of Oxford and the Japan Science and Technology Corporation (JST). 

We are grateful for financial support from the Department of Trade and Industry as part of the National Measurement System Valid Analytical Measurement programme. 

Abstract The Valid Analytical Measurement (VAM) programme was set up by the Department of Trade and Industry as part of its support for the UK National Measurement System. This paper gives an overview of the VAM programme together with a description of the principles on which valid analytical measurement should be based. This is followed by a... 

The VAM system was introduced and developed by LGC in the 1980s and describes a set of six principles designed to promote best practice and provide valid data to customers through quality programmes. The VAM principles are available through the National Measurement System Chemical and... 

VAM principles. National Measurement System Chemical and Biological Metrology Web site (www.nmschembio.org.uk). 

The word standard can refer to a physical standard such as length or to a standard specification such as the paper standard. The National Measurement Office (NMO) is responsible for all aspects of the National Measuring System (NMS). In the UK all our measurement issues are looked after by tbe NMS, wblch is the nation s infrastructure of measurement laboratories delivering world-class measurement, science and technology, ft provides traceable and increasingly accurate standards of measurement for use in trade, industry, academia and government. 

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The NIST is the source of many of the standards used in chemical and physical analyses in the United States and throughout the world. The standards prepared and distributed by the NIST are used to caUbrate measurement systems and to provide a central basis for uniformity and accuracy of measurement. At present, over 1200 Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) are available and are described by the NIST (15). Included are many steels, nonferrous alloys, high purity metals, primary standards for use in volumetric analysis, microchemical standards, clinical laboratory standards, biological material certified for trace elements, environmental standards, trace element standards, ion-activity standards (for pH and ion-selective electrodes), freezing and melting point standards, colorimetry standards, optical standards, radioactivity standards, particle-size standards, and density standards. Certificates are issued with the standard reference materials showing values for the parameters that have been determined. 

Cali JP, Meaes TW, Michaelis RE, Reed WP, Seward RW, Stanley CL, Yolken HT, and Ku HH 1975) The Role of Standard Reference Materials in Measurement Systems. NBS Monograph 148, National Bureau of Standards, Washington, DC. 

Science cannot be performed without an accurate system of measurement, which is globally standardized and compulsory. Units and standards of measurement are agreed upon and harmonized on an international basis by the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures in Sevres, France, and by the International Organization for Standardization in Geneva, Switzerland. The units and standards are then laid down in national laws. Nearly all countries have accepted the Systeme International d Unites (SI units) as their system of measurement. This also applies to countries that had been accustomed to use British units like Australia, Canada, South Africa and the United States. In Britain, SI units are official from January 2010. The valid standards are available from the competent bureaus, for example Bureau International des Poids et Mesures, www.bip.fr National Measurement Institute (Australia), www.measurement.gov.au National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, USA), www.physics.nist.gov/ Pubs/SP811/... 

Specifically, Spain s experiences in the selective financing of pharmaceuticals up to 1997 (Order of 6 April 1993, developing Royal Decree 98/93 of 22 January 1993, which regulates the selection of medicines for purposes of financing by the National Health System, BOE No. 88, 13 April 1993, Madrid, Boletin Oficial del Estado) lead us to conclude that the effectiveness of these measures has been small as regards their cost containment objectives. The decrees on the selective financing of pharmaceuticals of 1993 and... 

Juez and Tamayo51 also apply time-series analysis to the evaluation of the consequences of introducing selective financing in 1993. Using the aggregate monthly data on pharmaceutical expenditure of the National Health System between 1991 and 1995, in constant deseasonalized pesetas, the authors compare the observed evolution with the theoretical evolution according to a linear fit. They conclude that the measure had a notable effect in the short term, but was absorbed in the long term. 

Primary methods have the highest metrological qualities, whose operation can be completely described and understood, and for which a complete uncertainty statement can be written down in terms of SI units. Such methods are used by national laboratories participating in the development of a national or international chemical measurement system. 

STL are accredited by the Department of Trade and Industry via the National Measurement Accreditation Scheme (NAMAS). This covers all aspects of laboratory operations, such as organization of the laboratory and methodology, equipment and staff training, quahty-control systems and storage of data. The company acquired the first accreditation in the UK for the analysis of organic compounds by GC-MS. It also operates appropriate procedures to conform with the Department of Health s Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) recommendations. 

The laboratories are inspected annually by the National Measurement Accreditation Scheme (NAMAS) and for conformity to GLP. Part of the inspection is a vertical audit, which involves tracing a sample from the moment it is dehvered to the laboratory to when the result is reported. All the records of its passage through the system are traced. For... 

The Directive applies to any national measures to control price or restrict the range of products covered by national health insurance systems. The specific articles of the Directive cover the various schemes operational within the Community and demands that objective and verifiable criteria are met in their implementation (see also page 532 Chapter 17.15.4). 

Many countries have established national measurement institutes to oversee their metrology systems and obligations to the Treaty of the Metre. Sometimes chemistry and other sciences are separated (as in the National Physical Laboratory and the LGC in the United Kingdom), but increasingly chemical mea-... 

The certification procedure for seven trace metals (Ba, Ca, Li, Mg, Mn, Na and Sr) in the certified reference material FEBS-1 (National Research Council Canada, Institute for National Measurement Standards, Ottawa, Canada) based on fish otolith matrix by isotope dilution - ICP-MS in comparison to ICP optical emission spectrometry and X-ray fluorescence analysis, is described by Sturgeon et al4X The isotope dilution technique is also employed for species analysis in biological systems,46 e.g., for the determination of mercury species in tuna material,54 or in aquatic systems using cold vapour ICP-MS.55... 

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