American businesses continue their glacial-speed movement toward the metric system that
everyone else in the galaxy uses.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued two publications calling for the amendment of labeling laws to allow the voluntary use of only metric units on some consumer products. NIST researchers suggest that adoption of metric labeling will lead to greater agreement between state and federal labeling laws and simplify domestic and international commerce...
However, some manufacturers worry that the option to label products solely with metric units will confuse consumers and that it will force manufacturers to redesign product packaging.
To allay these concerns, NIST Metric Program coordinator Elizabeth Gentry notes that many products, especially wine and distilled spirits, have been sold with metric-only labels since the early 1980s. A study by her group found that 193 of 1,137 products surveyed in 19 retail stores were labeled with metric units only. More than half of those products were made or distributed by U.S. companies. Moreover, she notes that, under the proposal, use of metric only labeling would be voluntary, as would packaging modifications.
More at the
NIST website.
my only complaint is 710mL on the packages in the illustration, I can't recall ever going to the store for 710 mL of anything.
ReplyDeleteAmericans have been buying liters of soda for over 2 decades now and the world hasn't ended yet.
JD, I don't understand your complaint. You reach to pick up a container of milk. What difference does it make whether it has 710 ml or 691 ml or 717 ml? It only needs to be about the right size for your needs. When I get some Little Debbie junk food, I don't expect the weight to be in round numbers.
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean we're going to have to start *liking* soccer (ahem - "football") more often than World Cup time?
ReplyDeleteIf I were elected King of the USA, the metric system would the first thing I decree.
ReplyDeleteI feel that if the metric system did appear, we'd be used to it in about three months.
Oh god, please bring the metric system tomorrow. I have to measure things in "7/32 of an inch" and make sure that's less than "1/4 of an inch" every day. I also have a line running 46 feet per minute and have to figure out how many 22-inch sheets per minute that is.
ReplyDeleteHow quickly can a person with a reasonable degree of numeracy convert between fluid ounces, pints, quarts and gallons (20 floz = 1 pint; 2 pints = 1 quart; 4 quarts = 1 gallon)? The answer - a lot more slowly than converting between millilitres, centilitres and litres.
ReplyDeleteOops - I forgot, this is an American website and I am British - you guys have 16 floz in a pint, we have 20; your floz is larger than the our's, but your pint is smaller. There is only one small difference between the "liter" in the US and the "litre" in the UK - the spelling.