SI News and Events

Miscellaneous Articles and Commentary The "Did You Know That" page at the U.S. Metric Association's web site has links to a large number of the on line articles and commentaries that appeared on the Internet following the MCO disaster. Click below to visit their site. Once there, scroll down to 1999 October.

Can we do anything about avoiding costly mistakes like the Mars Climate Orbiter Disaster?

Yes! See Political Action.  

Most States Now Permit Metric-Only Labeling

On January 1, 2000, fourteen states automatically adopted the Uniform Packaging and Labeling Regulation (UPLR), which permits (but does not require) metric-only measures on the labels of a wide range of consumer products.

Since then, most of the other states have adopted UPLR.

Adoption Status, by State

This map shows the status, in late 2003, of UPLR adoption in the 48 contiguous states, plus Alaska and Hawaii. The states that currently allow metric-only labeling are shown in cyan (blue-green). For three maps, showing the progress since 2000 (at the Metric Methods web site), click on the map. (Because the map is being retrieved from another site, it may be a little slow to appear.)

Goods Covered by the UPLR

Metric Methods also provides a fairly comprehensive (although not complete) list of the goods covered by the UPLR. Click here to view it.

The above map, which resides at the Metric Methods web site, is displayed here courtesy of James R. Frysinger, of Metric Methods. Any changes to the map, at that site, will be automatically reflected here.

NIST Conference Exhibit Schedule

This item has been moved to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) section.

United Kingdom Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)

In July 1999, the DTI published a "Consultation Document," with the title A Fairer Measure, at its web site, explaining many aspects of the new British Weights and Measures Law. [CK]

DTI also has a "Regulatory Impact Assessment" document, called Units of Measurement  Regulations 2001.

U.K. National Federation of Consumer Groups

From time to time, the NfCG site has items regarding the state of metrication in the U.K. Click on Go or the NfCG logo to visit their site, which will open in a new window. If you click on Consumer News, on their menu, and choose Issue 214, you will find two letters on metrication on page 8. The second one makes a strong case in favor of metrication. 

The results of an NfCG Metrication Survey are available at the UK Metrication web site. It was conducted in response to the assertion of BWMA  that most of NfCG's members were opposed to metrication. (BWMA [British Weights and Measures Association] is an anti-metric organization.)

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[NASA Inspector General's Report] 
[Metric-Only Labeling] [NIST Exhibits]
[UK DTI] [UK NfCG]