Laboratory Measurement Uncertainty (Part 2)
Chris Swyngedouw (1)
and Robert Lessard (2)

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The International Network of Environmental Forensics (INEF) held the 2009 Advances in Environmental Forensics Conference in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on August 31 to September 2, 2009. The theme of the conference was the presentation of environmental topics that are uniquely focused on the use of scientific techniques to identify the source, age, and timing of a contaminant release into the environment. The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) will publish the manuscripts submitted to the conference. Details can be found at www.inefconference.com.

Dr. Chris Swyngedouw, Technology Transfer Consultant gave a presentation on Laboratory Measurement Uncertainty for the statistical modelling session (moderated by Alan Jeffrey – Zymax).
One can think of a test result as a “best estimate” of some property and the uncertainty as how sure one can be of that best estimate. It is a measure of the quality of the result. Uncertainty of measurement does NOT imply doubt about the validity of a measurement. Rather, knowledge of uncertainty specifies and quantifies CONFIDENCE in the validity of a measurement and therefore adds VALUE to that measurement result. It has been argued that if the uncertainty of a measurement is not known, then that measurement has little or no value.