Metrology certificates of Belarus

Courtesy: Metrology certificates of Belarus

The International Organization of Legal Metrology (French: Organisation Internationale de Métrologie Légale – OIML), is an intergovernmental organisation that was created in 1955 to promote the global harmonisation of the legal metrology procedures that underpin and facilitate international trade.

Such harmonisation ensures that certification of measuring devices in one country is compatible with certification in another, thereby facilitating trade in the measuring devices and in products that rely on the measuring devices. Such products include weighing devices, taxi meters, speedometers, agricultural measuring devices such as cereal moisture meters, health related devices such as exhaust measurements and alcohol content of drinks.

Since its establishment, the OIML has developed a number of guidelines to assist its Members, particularly developing nations, to draw up appropriate legislation concerning metrology across all facets of society and guidelines on certification and calibration requirements of new products, particularly where such calibration has a legal impact such as in trade, health care and taxation.

The OIML works closely with other international organisations such as the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to ensure compatibility between each organisation’s work. The OIML has no legal authority to impose solutions on its Members, but its Recommendations are often used by Member States as part of their own national legislation.

As of March 2022, 62 countries had signed up as Member States and a further 63 as Corresponding (non-voting) Members including all the G20, EU and BRICS countries. Between them, the OIML Members cover 86 % of the world’s population and 96 % of its economy.

The Headquarters of the OIML is located in Paris, France.

Definition of “legal metrology”

The definition of “legal metrology” varies amongst jurisdictions, reflecting the extent to which metrology is bound into the jurisdiction’s own legal and regulatory code. The OIML, in their publication International Vocabulary of Terms in Legal Metrology defined “legal metrology” as

… concerns regulatory requirements of measurements and measuring instruments for the protection of health, public safety, the environment, enabling taxation, protection of consumers and fair trade.

In the glossary of their book Metrology – in short Howarth and Redgrave state that “legal metrology”

Ensures accuracy and reliability of measurement where measured values can affect health, safety, or the transparency of financial transactions e.g. weights and measures.

These two statements are held together by the words “regulatory”, “accuracy” and “reliability”. The word “regulatory” encompasses the “legal” aspects of the term – the role played by governments, national metrology institutes and standards organisations in creating a framework to ensure confidence in the accuracy and reliability of a measurement. This framework requires that the specified test and conformance operations are carried out, and that the certificates pertaining to these operations are filed in a manner that enables third parties to assess them should the need arise.

The OIML has identified four main activities that fulfil the purposes of legal metrology:

• Setting up of legal requirements,
• Control/conformity assessment of regulated products and regulated activities,
• Supervision of regulated products and of regulated activities,
• Providing the necessary infrastructure for correct measurements.