The Principle of Pooled Calibrations as Alternative to Conventional Practices and Procedures of QA/QC and Metrology

Analytical chemistry (AC) encompasses application of virtually any apparatus that is suitable for quantitation from weighing
and pH measurements to liquid-chromatography-mass spectrometry and synchrotrons. All the technologies must be
validated according to practices and procedures of QA/QC that have been developed by international organizations mainly
for the industry over the past three decades. Introduction of QA/QC to academia is not as complete as it is to the industry,
and some of the issues of these efforts to promote QA/QC in science are highlighted. Conventional methods of QA/QC and
metrology have some built-in features of method validations that may provide contradictory results and disagreements
even between professional laboratories. Recent results of Eurachem concur with the celebrated results of Horwitz, as they
both claim that many of such discrepancies may be explained by incompetence or lack of training of laboratory staff. These
findings have recently been contested, as evidence as to poor performance of apparatuses with respect to quantitation is
more likely to be another source to the disputes. Introduction of the principle of pooled calibrations suggests that
reproducibility can be assessed by a single laboratory. The uncertainty supplied by the manufacturer of the apparatus
informs about precision, but it does not address the concept of accuracy. It is proposed that generally higher levels of
uncertainty should be assigned to most apparatuses during the method validation of the laboratory. This will deliver longlasting
method validations that do not cause any stop in the production and it gives no disagreements between results of
different laboratories.