Anal Bioanal Chem (2005) 382: 1740–1743

DOI 10.1007/s00216-005-3308-z

FEATURE ARTICLE

Karl Heinz Koch

The responsibility of the analytical chemist to society

Published online: 13 July 2005

Ó Springer-Verlag 2005

Today and increasingly in the future, our society relies

more heavily upon science and technology. Because so
Responsibility and ethics
many important societal problems relate directly to
Responsible analytical chemists must apply truthfulness
analytical measurements it seemed appropriate to survey
as the fundamental criterion for their ethical behaviour,
the responsibility of the analytical chemist to the general
besides efficiency as a modern yardstick for analytical
public. Analytical science provides manifold bases for
performance. The recognition of a ‘‘true’’ state of affairs
decision making in today’s technologically determined
and its objective communication demands, under some
world, particularly research-related, epistemological,
circumstances, an admission regarding the limitation of
economic, industrial, cultural–historic, administrative
the resulting information and the courage to confess the
and society-relevant situations, and also affects the
imperfection of a method or an outcome. The ethics
interrelationships between economy, ecology, common
imply that a responsible analytical chemist must in no
welfare and legislature (politics). Increasing industriali-
case falsify this attained state of knowledge and the
zation and the formation of conurbations caused by it
conclusions deriving from it for fear of a lack of
have meanwhile led to some serious problems for society
acceptance by interest groups or for the sake of expe-
and nature as a whole.
diency. Where analytical activities, deemed and pro-
The first step in the recognition and solution of such
posed by the expert analytical chemist as necessary in
problems requires an understanding and awareness of
problem cases, are limited by external influences devoid
areas that might be influenced by industrial processes or
of any ethics, an ethical problem arises for the analytical
societal misdevelopments. As reliable statements about
chemist committed to the truthfulness of his actions, as
existing environmental conditions require exact mea-
he knows the way out of the dilemma, but cannot take it.
surement results, analytics has to play a central and
As the information and results yielded by analytics
fundamental role, since it must produce the substantial
can mean serious consequences in many areas of
prerequisite in order to characterize given conditions
industry and society, it is also the analytical chemist’s
and to identify the necessity for precautions (environ-
responsibility nowadays, under certain circumstances, to
mental analysis). Elsewhere, analytical methods are ap-
hold a dialogue at the end of an analytical process chain,
plied in valuing and controlling the effectiveness of
i.e. to comment on the results of his work, to give sci-
technical processes and equipment, for example, in food
entifically founded recommendations and, where appli-
production to ensure the elimination or avoidance of
cable or necessary, to take part in technical–scientific or
harmful amounts of contaminants or in medical–diag-
even socio-political discussion. That means that he has
nostic applications. In view of the multi-dimensional job
to explain the significance and implications of analytical
of analytics today, the role of ethics and truthfulness in
methods to the general public that relate to their direct
providing a fundamental orientation for the ethical
interests and he has to do it in a way that would be
behaviour of analytical chemists and the necessity for
understood by that target audience. When analytical
efficiency of analytical investigations will be discussed.
results are being interpreted, it must, if necessary, be
pointed out that they may contain uncertainties and
risks. The analytical chemist who, conscious of his lim-
K. H. Koch ited insights, gives honest information at all times, is
Society for the Advancement of Spectrochemistry
and Applied Spectroscopy e. V., Bunsen-Kirchhoff-Str. 11, acting and thinking in an ethical way by evaluating the
44139 Dortmund, Germany correctness of his actions on the basis of convictions
E-mail: sprave@ansci.de directed to scientific, technological and societal progress.

Truth and truthfulness
Truthfulness, which presupposes in each case the cog-
nition of the natural scientific truth, means honesty
supported by the ensured knowledge against oneself
(harmony of statement and conviction) and society—in
this case the clients; or as it was formulated by Hecht [1]:
‘‘Prima lex analyticae est, nequid false dicere audeat’’.
In this claim the paradigm of truth, to which the
‘‘analytical community’’ feels obliged, belongs to a
generally acknowledged scientific basis concept, the
paradigm of analytics [2], and its valid expression.
Analytics consequently means searching and finding the
truth.
‘‘Trueness’’, by which the formal validity of a sen-
tence—e.g. according to well-known standards the ex-
tent of the approach of an expectation of determination
to a reference value—is understood (‘‘trueness’’ =
accuracy of the mean!), has to be distinguished from the
‘‘truth’’—the agreement of a sentence (an acceptance)
with the facts. Similarly, one must distinguish between
the ‘‘true’’ and the ‘‘conventional true’’ value. The cor-
responding standard defines the ‘‘true value’’ as an ac-
tual attribute value under the conditions governing the
determination, whereat it is noticed that it is an ideal
value, because it could only be determined if all errors of
result could be avoided. Out of theoretical consider-
ations it follows that the true value can only be ap-
proached asymptotically.
The present analytical practice therefore admits to
finding the truth in the scientific sense only, i.e. the
determination of the conventional true value, which is
looked at as an approximation value for the true value
and its deviation from the true value is considered as
neglectible. True results, however, can only be received if
the analytical method performed contains no systematic
errors. The fulfilment of this requirement must be con-
firmed by tests and their statistical evaluation. At the
end of each analytical investigation chain there stands
the assessment of the method as well as the ‘‘correct’’
interpretation and transmission of assured analytical
facts. The final ‘‘diagnosis’’ comprises the transforma-
tion of measuring signals into analytical data after
testing of the procedure regarding systematic errors, the
estimation (calculation) of random errors and/or
the precision (analytical quality assurance), if necessary,
the testing of the results regarding plausibility and per-
haps the characterization of the method by characteristic
data, such as limit of detection, limit of determination,
linearity, sensitivity, etc.
However, the diagnostic valuation of the analytical
result does not necessarily mean that the analytical
process is finished. Only the partnership’s ‘‘dialogue’’
closes the analytical process of the scientific finding of
the truth, because with its result it leads back to the
problem recognized at the beginning. This recognizing
of a conventional true fact and its objective transmission
1741
(publication) also possibly demands a confession of the
limitation of the statement and the courage to confess
the imperfection of a method or a result, as mentioned
before.
Analytical science and economy
In an age where financial resources are limited in all
areas of society all over the world, the economic aspect
inevitably has to take centre stage in many consider-
ations and decisions—a situation which also applies to
all testing and analysis activities in all fields of ana-
lytical science. This means that the tasks and problems
which analytics is expected to tackle are at all times
accompanied by demands for economy efficiency,
speed and cost minimisation (i.e. for effectiveness and
efficiency of the whole analytical process in question).
Economically speaking, there are two facets to ana-
lytics: one is its aim to boost the efficiency of technical
processes or societal important investigations by mak-
ing data available in an effective manner, and the other
is its requirement to be efficient itself. The aforemen-
tioned demands for cost minimisation and, at the same
time, for greater analytical productivity have led to
numerous activities aimed at automating and robotis-
ing as many work proceedings as possible. The ques-
tion arising with regard to the effectiveness of analytics
can be answered by critically examining the expendi-
ture of testing involved in each case. To do this, it is
necessary to define representative parameters, which
are indispensable to characterize e.g. a material, envi-
ronmental conditions or a process-related state. Effi-
ciency is achieved by cost-saving measures: for
example, the robotization of analytical process steps or
the automation of extensive analytical systems. Fur-
thermore, the rapidly developing sensor technology [3]
constantly opens new ways for in-line methods and has
meanwhile led to a series of technically and economi-
cally interesting solutions; it must be considered as a
promising way to achieve analytical procedures of high
efficiency, particularly in the future. In this case, effi-
ciency means, beside the economic aspects, optimal
analysis times and the problem-oriented adaption of
the demanded analytical data. While sensors generally
allow only one component or a summation parameter
in a medium to be recorded, the miniaturization of
analytical systems aims at a broader application and at
the possibility for in-line multi-element analysis. This
analytical field of research is based on the development
of automated devices in which all steps of an analytical
procedure are completely integrated (total analytical
systems: TAS) [4]. These systems applying conventional
principles are often far too voluminous to be used
on-site or as mobile instruments. This limitation and
needs arising from process controlling, safety technics
and medicine suggested the development of miniatur-
ized versions of this technology, the so-called
l-TAS [5].
1742
The ever increasing constraint to reduce costs and
thus rationalize laboratory work further led, in the
various fields of work, to a number of efficient problem-
solving approaches which made it possible to improve
the performance of laboratories despite a greatly re-
duced number of operators. What helps to assure a high
level of effectiveness and efficiency, however, is not only
the investments, which are regarded as essential, but
also, to a significant degree, the motivation brought
about by co-operative staff-management and continuous
demand-oriented personnel-training measures. To round
off this economic appraisal, a figure should also be
mentioned which characterises the importance of ana-
lytics globally: the annual market potential for labora-
tory and analytical equipment is currently estimated at
US $25 billion worldwide, with Europe accounting for
roughly 40% of this figure.
Responsibility and analytical education
Another question of responsibility deals with problems of
academic education and professional training. By the
recognition that an efficient academic teaching forms the
basis for the efficient application of analytics in all fields
of today and in the future, the Working Party on Ana-
lytical Chemistry (WPAC) of the Federation of European
Chemical Societies (FECS) has provided recommenda-
tions for a standardized organisation of the university
education of analytical chemistry including the supply of
the methodical basic knowledge explicitly dealing with
sensorics, industrial and computer-based analytics and
quality assurance. Only in this way will analytical
chemistry cease to be a retrospective activity and become
a diagnostic science penetrating all areas of life in an age
in which the pressure continuously increases to produce
rapid fully developed products, to increase efficiency, to
increase safety and ensure environmental protection.
On the other hand, the irreproachable application of
analytical techniques in any laboratory calls for profes-
sionally trained and qualified experts. For this reason,
all those responsible should have a continual interest in
the suitable structuring and, as a function of technical
developments, the necessary amendment of the profes-
sion description and framework curriculum for the
professional training of laboratory assistants as well as
for the training of chemical technicians. In this context,
the professionally qualified human being can be re-
garded as a link of a chain that bends a bow from the
quality-assured production of market-oriented products
or societal-required services up to analytical investiga-
tions as part of research and development projects. But
as professional training is also subject to socio-political
changes, among others, the industries are called upon
here to play a constant role and to exert an influence,
which, like in Germany, can consist in participating in
the examination and training committees of the cham-
bers of industry and commerce.
Outlook
Process-related, material-related, economic and envi-
ronmental and life science issues will increasingly be the
mainspring for further analytical research and develop-
ment in the coming decade. One future trend is the
development of on-line and in-line techniques that can
be integrated in control or screening systems for wide-
spread use in various areas of society. Finally, it remains
to be said that analytics must not only create precon-
ditions for new forward-looking technological develop-
ments, but also provide the means e.g. for reliable
quality assurance in the production of new materials, the
optimization of technical processes or environmental
conditions. That means that progress in all fields of
human life in the future, as in the past, will not be
possible without an innovative analytics.
References
1. Malissa H, Fresenius Z (1988) Anal Chem 331:236–244
2. Malissa H, Fresenius J (1992) Anal Chem 343:836–848
3. Cammann K, Ross B, Hasse W, Dumschat C, Katerkamp A,
Reinbold J, Steinhage G, Gründig B, Renneberg R, Buschmann
N (1994) Ullmann’s encyclopedia of industrial chemistry, vol. B
6. VCH, Weinheim
4. Verpoorte EMJ, van the Schoot BH, Jeanneret S, Manz A,
Widmer HM, de Rooij NF (1994) J Micromech Microeng 4:246–
256
5. Vilkner T, Janasek D, Manz A (2004) Anal Chem 76:3373–3386
Meetings with Professor Wilhelm Fresenius
Every student of chemistry comes across the name of
Fresenius during his studies. If he has a special interest in
analysis, he rapidly recognises Professor Wilhelm Frese-
nius as an exceptional personality who made significant
contributions to the development and acceptance of ana-
lytical chemistry over several decades. That was my
impression as a student, too. However, his admirable
personality only became clear in private conversations.
Before I could meet him in person, I started as an ana-
lytical beginner in the steel industry, in professional con-
tact with the Fresenius Institute (1957). An arbitrary
analysis by the Fresenius Institute of an iron ore delivery
of considerable value was to provide an objective settle-
ment to a dispute between the supplier and the receiver. As
the normal distribution would have it, the issue remained
undecided and I succeeded in saving face. I had also learnt
a lot by example of the practical meaning of mathematical
statistics. 1978 was an important year for me, as I was
elected to the executive board of the Working Group on
Analytical Chemistry in the GDCh and to the board of
trustees of the Society for the Advancement of Spectro-
chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, responsible for the

ISAS Institute for Analytical Sciences, Dortmund/Berlin.
This led to a period of several decades in which I had
regular and unforgettable meetings with Wilhelm Frese-
nius. These were pioneering for me and revealed his
extraordinarily comprehensive knowledge of science in
general, his impressive achievements in many fields of
analytical sciences and his work for the acceptance of
analytics in society. I felt it as a special acknowledgement
in 1988 when I was appointed on his recommendation to be
chairman of the committee that had to prepare the 12th
edition of the ‘‘Leistungsverzeichnis für chemische Arbei-
ten’’ (Specifications for Chemical Procedures) of the
1743
GDCh; Professor Fresenius was of great help in this work.
I have not forgotten our meetings at various symposia and
conferences, such as EUROANALYSIS or ANAKON.
This gave us the opportunity for a critical exchange of
ideas about the future of analytical chemistry in Germany
and the position and teaching of analytical chemistry at
our universities. Finally, I want to mention the ceremony
in 1995 at the Vienna University of Technology on
the occasion of Professor H. Malissa’s 75th birthday.
This was an impressive event: Fresenius delivered a
spontaneous eulogy in fluent English, with a touch of sly
humour.