DS3077—Horizontal Standard revision after 10 years and induction as an ISO Standard
Authors: Esbensen K. , Skerning L. 
Published: May 2022

DS3077 “Representative Sampling – Horizontal Standard”, released in 2013, is a Danish Standard but was from the start intended as a de facto international standard. DS3077 (2013) was the result of growing international frustration over the lack of a comprehensive standard covering general sampling issues and recommendations regarding practical sampling across the countless specific matrices targeted within science, technology, industry, trade, commerce, regulatory and law-enforcing agencies and in society at large. Within these application sectors, before 2013 there was a belief that specific material-dependent sampling procedures (and equipment) were needed. It was assumed that these issues were better addressed in specific matrix-related standards dealing with handling of important commodities and general classes of materials, with dedicated chapters on their sampling included. Thus, for a long time, sampling issues were relegated to such minor chapters, or subchapters only, never receiving the full attention deserved. Progress on developing general sampling principles was therefore absent from the international standards arena. This was status quo at the time the first World Conference on Sampling and Blending, WCSB1, took place in 2003. But in the immediately following years it was realized just how big the need for a general approach was. Something had to give.

Therefore, it fell to a small R&D group at a peripheral university location in the outskirts of Europe to break this deadlock: But who had ever heard of the city ofEsbjerg (5th largest city of Denmark, itself a nation hardly among the leading players in the EU). Never-the-less, at the satellite university campus of Aalborg University (currently, its engineering department rated 8th in the world, and number 1 in Europe), a new professorship was inaugurated dedicated to chemometrics and sampling, both new disciplines on the engineering curriculum. Not necessarily a promising academic environment from which to take on the world – and with aspirations to develop the world’s first “horizontal“ sampling standard (horizontal: = matrix-independent). 2008 saw the first committee meetings devoted to scope out this task, which at the time seemed quite formidable, if not almost hopeless. As it turned out, the gestation period was precisely five years. The full historical record of this endeavor can be found here: “DS 3077 Horizontal—a new standard for representative sampling. Design, history, and acknowledgements” doi: 10.1255/tosf.7

Fast forward: Ten years later, 2022, it is time to revise DS3077. Normally standards are revised with intervals of ca. five years, but in the present case, a national standard with clear international ambitions, rules and regulations were deliberately loosened up, to give the standard a fair try of proving its value. At the time closing in on its 10-year anniversary, Danish Standards conducted a critical survey of its“history” (the sales history) – and found the evidence of its merit and usefulness quite satisfactory, numerically and otherwise.

Thus, revision of DS3077(2013) is now on the agenda for 2022/2023. This POSTER is a call to interested parties and stakeholders to consider contributing to this revision. Revision of the Danish standard (from 2nd to 3rd edition) will take part in Q3 and Q4, 2022. Immediately following the release of DS3077(2023), 3rd edition, work will begin on introducing the fully revised edition into the ISO realm, following standard ISO procedures. This POSTER is also a call to all interested parties to consider contributing to this ISO process. It is felt that WCSB10 is a perfect occasion to reach out to catch the attention of potential taskforce members from all over the International Pierre Gy Sampling Association (IPGSA) community!