Standards

You probably don’t often question whether the food you buy in the grocery store is safe. Or if the lab where your doctor sends your samples accurately calculated your vitamin D levels. 

But imagine, for a moment, how much more difficult it would be to go about your daily life if you didn’t have the information those measurements provide.  How would you decide what is safe and healthy to eat? How would you know if you were getting enough vitamin D or if your cholesterol levels were too high? 

That's one of the big reasons NIST exists—to reduce uncertainty in our measurements and increase your confidence in the information you use to make important decisions in your daily life. And part of the way NIST does that is through Standard Reference Materials (SRMs).