Press release

WORLD METROLOGY DAY 2011

Chemical measurements
for our life, our future

World Metrology Day has become an established annual event during which more than eighty States celebrate the impact of measurement on our daily lives, no part of which is untouched by this essential, and largely hidden, aspect of modern society. Previous themes have included topics such as measurements for innovation, and measurements in sport, the environment, medicine, and trade.

UNESCO and IUPAC have decided to designate 2011 as The International Year of Chemistry (IYC 2011), a worldwide celebration of the achievements of chemistry and its contributions to the well-being of humankind. Under the unifying theme “Chemistry - our life, our future,” IYC 2011 will offer a range of interactive, entertaining, and educational activities for all ages. The year 2011 also coincides with the centenary of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Madame Marie Curie - an opportunity to celebrate the contributions of women to science.

Chemistry is a creative science that is essential for sustainability and improvements to our way of life. All known matter is composed of pure chemical elements or of compounds made from those elements. Humankind’s understanding of the material nature of our world is grounded in our knowledge of chemistry. Molecular transformations are central to the production of foodstuffs, medicines, fuels, and metals - i.e. virtually all manufactured and extracted products.

The World Metrology Day 2011 message Chemical measurements for our life, our future builds upon the IYC 2011 theme. Chemistry and chemicals pose particularly interesting challenges to the measurement community: thousands of compounds must be measured, and the range of concentrations at which some compounds must be reliably detected, quantified, and in some cases regulated can nowadays extend down to parts per billion (or even trillion). Yet the ability to make appropriately accurate and reliable chemical measurements is crucial to our economy, our environment and our personal well being; in short we must not underestimate the importance of Chemical measurements for our life, our future.

National measurement systems must rely on agreed standards, units, and techniques to make consistent, reproducible and accurate measurements. Each system of national measurement standards and laboratories is then linked into a world-wide network coordinated by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM). This network gives society access to accurate measurements in order to meet today’s challenges in healthcare, within the environment and in all the new technologies and processes. In industry and commerce, it helps ensure product quality and interoperability, eliminates waste, raises productivity, and facilitates trade based on agreed measurements and tests. It also enables scientists to use a common language to underpin their collaboration across the world and ensure that their exploits can be taken up and accurately reproduced by companies wherever they operate.

National and regional metrological regulations must be based on agreed technical requirements in order to help avoid or eliminate technical barriers to trade, ensure fair trade practice, care for the environment and maintain a satisfactory healthcare system. The International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML) has developed a worldwide technical structure by means of which it provides its Members with technical Recommendations and Documents as well as Guides, Vocabularies and other publications. When developing their metrological legislation and regulations, OIML Members can ensure they meet these objectives by including the requirements contained in the relevant OIML publications.

This year, in their messages to the world of metrology, Governments, companies, academics, and indeed to the man or woman in the street, the Directors of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures and of the International Bureau of Legal Metrology both highlight the importance of accurate, reliable and internationally accepted chemical measurements in the modern world as it deals with today’s grand challenges.

Joint Statement from ILAC and IAF Chairs
 
Supporting the work of Regulators

We are delighted to announce that World Accreditation Day will take place on June 9th 2011. This year's theme is based on how accreditation is used to support the work of Regulators.

Accreditation provides confidence in the competence and integrity of conformity assessment activities that can be used to support the implementation of government policies and regulations that impact on health, welfare, security and the environment.

Government departments and regulatory authorities may specify in their public policies, government specifications and regulations that accredited bodies be used, and so gain confidence that competent bodies have been used to determine compliance with laws, regulations and specifications.

More and more Regulators throughout the world are recognising the benefits of using accreditation. For example, in the US, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) for toy testing, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in the nuclear area, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for food safety, have all made accreditation a core element of their policy making strategy. In Asia-Pacific, accreditation underpins the ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) sectoral MRA for electrical and electronic equipment as a means of meeting the mandatory requirements of each member and to support the implementation of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA). Whilst in Europe, a legal framework for the provision of accreditation services across Europe is written into Regulation, which recognises the benefits of accreditation by legislating that it be used as a means to show compliance with mandatory regulatory requirements.

The mainstream acceptance of accreditation by pan-regional bodies, and domestic regulators within individual governments, also helps member governments of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to meet their responsibilities of the Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement (TBT Agreement). IAF and ILAC are now also mentioned as key players by the United Nations.

This increased recognition from Regulators was reflected in a survey of the ILAC Membership carried out in 2010, which reported that accreditation is used and accepted to support Government policy in all the 55 economies that responded. In fact, 77% of economies stated that their Regulators actually require results from accredited organisations. This represents an increase of 36% since 2002, demonstrating the value and confidence that Regulators derive from accreditation.

Whilst this growth represents strong progress, wider recognition remains a core objective for IAF and ILAC, both through the adoption of accreditation into new policy areas but also its expansion into new territories and regions. Accreditation is a proven tool that can be applied to a wide variety of assessment, approval or evaluation tasks that can be used to address a wide range of Regulatory requirements both in Developed or Developing economies. World Accreditation Day 2011 provides the ideal platform to build on this progress and to gain even wider recognition.