I think it is a great speech. Perhaps you could also mention that over
47,000 Americans signed that White House petition to Make the Metric
system the standard in the United States, instead of the Imperial
system.
David Pearl MetricPioneer.com 503-428-4917
----- Message from j...@frewston.plus.com ---------
Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2013 17:44:57 +0100
From: j...@frewston.plus.com
Reply-To: j...@frewston.plus.com
Subject: [USMA:52617] Re: tentative speech to High Level EU-US
package labeling forum
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu>
Cc: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu>
I think a line somewhere saying what being non-metric COSTS the US
economy, and how it depresses the US GDP, would really get their
attention.
John F-L
From: Henschel Mark
Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2013 5:11 PM
To: U.S. Metric Association
Cc: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:52615] tentative speech to High Level EU-US package
labeling forum
Hello everybody:
Here is a copy of the tentative speech I intend to give to the EU-US
high level regulatory forum held in Washington, DC on April 10.
(Hectoday?)
Anyway, you can all check it out and give comments. I timed it, and
it barely made five minutes when I talked fast. So if you want me to
add anything, something would have to be deleted.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Remarks to the EU-US High Level Forum on International Trade
Hello,
My name is Mark Henschel, I am a math teacher at Madison College, a
community college, in Madison, Wisconsin. I do not work for any
companies that have any economic interest in US metrication and
speak only as an American citizen who represents millions of
Americans who want the United States to switch to the Metric System.
I remember when I was 14 years old, and had to work on a paper for a
high school class at the public library in Dubuque, Iowa. The
librarian suggested I check the vertical file. When I did, I found a
little three page pamphlet entitled "Do you measure up?" It was
written by Louis Sokol from the US Metric Association.
There were very simple arguments in that pamphlet, but they made
sense, and reading that pamphlet literally changed my life. After
college I got a job teaching plastic shop at Lindblom Technical High
School in Chicago, Illinois. During the time I taught high school
shop, I taught my students to make their projects in the Metric
System. I used metric try squares and rulers made by Starrett and
Stanley Tool and none of my students had any trouble creating their
projects in SI units. During this same time I wrote a metric
cookbook and a book on drafting in the Metric System called Metric
Supplement to Technical Drawing.
One summer I taught a course for seventh grade girls in metric
cooking. None of the girls had any trouble cooking in the Metric
System, and as you can see, I am still alive, so none of their
metric food caused any harm to me or any of them.
From 1982 to 2007 I was a full time math professor at the City
Colleges of Chicago, and did numerous projects in my algebra and
statistics classes that were metric only. For 25 years I judged the
State of Illinois Junior Academy of Science and Chicago Public
Schools Science Fairs, for best use of the Metric System in their
projects. For several years in the 1990's and early in the 21st
Century I worked displays for the Metric Programs Office under the
US Department of Commerce, working with Gerald Iannelli, Linda
Crown, and Jim McCracken to help educate people about the Metric
System. This office is now called the Laws and Metric Group, and I
have fond memories of the displays I worked and the people I met
while working those displays.
Over the years I obtained five college degrees, including two
Master?s Degrees, and wrote two Master?s Degree Theses, both on the
Metric System. From my 40 years of teaching experience, I can attest
to why students in the USA do so poorly in science and math classes.
I remember the first time I used the Metric System in school was
when I was in chemistry class. I think this is still true for many
American students. Since they are not reinforced in the use of
metric units in their lives outside of school, they are confused
when getting to science and math classes, and often don?t go very
far in science and technology courses in high school and college.
Thus, we have to import scientists and technologists from other
countries where students are reinforced in society by the use of the
same units that are used in the science and math classes..
This hurts our country.
The dual labeling on packages is often confusing. Since both labels
are on the product in the store, students don?t get a "feel" for how
big metric units are. As a result, they often make mistakes in
estimating how big or how heavy something is in metric units.
This can lead to real trouble in medicine, as many times health
professionals who do not have a feel for how heavy a child might be
can easily give the wrong dose which might become a health hazard.
Even outside of medicine there can be problems when people cannot
estimate how big or heavy something might be in metric units. I
remember the student in an engineering class who told me the bridge
over a specific river had to be three meters long. Turns out it
needed to be three kilometers long, but he did not have a feel for
how big the units actually were.
Our strength as an industrial nation goes back to the economy of
scale. We were able to win World War II through the production
capacity of American industry. It makes economic sense to make
products in the USA and then export them all over the world. Yet it
makes no sense to create one set of labels for the US market and
another set for the world market. And if the labels are both
inch-pound and metric, our future scientists and engineers will
never get a sense of how big metric units actually are. For the sake
of American industrial competitiveness and to help our children
succeed in science and engineering classes, please support the
metric-only update of the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act to allow,
but not require, the use of metric only package labeling in the USA.
Every time an American company or agency as switched to the Metric
System, they have found the costs involved to be insignificant or
non-existent. American workers are adaptable, and can learn to use
the new units. I remember when I had to mix chemicals in a
photographic darkroom. I used metric units, and it was much easier
than using the American quart and ounce measurements. Several other
photographers I talked to told me the same thing.
Politicians often don?t realize there is much more support for
American metrication than they realize, basically because the metric
movement has no lobbying group. I remember one display I was working
for the Laws and Metric Group, and I was wearing a hat that said
"Time to go Metric" A stranger walked up to me and said "Past time
to go metric."
I urge the EU-US commission to make a bold step forward. Please help
move the US forward on metrication. Please support the metric-only
update of the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act.
Thank you very much,
Mark Henschel
----- Original Message -----
From: Team Metric Info <i...@metricrules.org>
Date: Friday, April 5, 2013 3:23 pm
Subject: [USMA:52602] FPLA question
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@ColoState.EDU>
Does anyone know how drug and medical devices became exempt from
FPLA- they are metric-only correct? Did the FDA just give them a
waiver or did someone seek congressional approval/ amendment?
a.. Basic Requirements: The FPLA requires each package of
household "consumer commodities" that is included in the coverage of
the FPLA to bear a label on which there is:
a.. a statement identifying the commodity, e.g., detergent,
sponges, etc.;
b.. the name and place of business of the manufacturer, packer,
or distributor;
c.. and the net quantity of contents in terms of weight,
measure, or numerical count (measurement must be in both metric and
inch/pound units).
b.. Purpose of the Act: The FPLA is designed to facilitate value
comparisons and to prevent unfair or deceptive packaging and
labeling of many household "consumer commodities."
c.. FDA: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) administers the
FPLA with respect to foods, drugs, cosmetics, and medical devices.
The FTC administers the FPLA with respect to other "consumer
commodities" that are consumed or expended in the household.
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