The following is my personal analysis of the Metric Directive. Your comments would be appreciated.
In order to eliminate barriers to trade within the European Union caused by differing units of measurements, the European Commission has issued the so called Metric Directive (80/181/EEC as amended by 85/1/EEC and 89/617/EEC). The directive establishes the International System of Units (SI) as the sole legal measurement system in the EU; however a transitional period is allowed for certain other units of measurement. ISO 2995, "Information processing - Representation of SI and other units in systems with limited character sets" applies. The directive relates to "measurement instruments used, measurements made and indications of quantity expressed in units of measurement, for economic, public health, public safety or administrative purposes." Therefore, in this writer's opinion, the directive relates to all measurements on our company's containers and products and in our software (displayed information) and documentation. Documentation includes installation and services manuals, user manuals, marketing documents, and customs documents and other product related documentation. Products that were being sold prior to 20 December 1979, may continue to be sold as is. All other products must comply with the directive. The use of supplementary indications are allowed until the year 2000. A supplementary indication may not be expressed in characters larger than the SI unit. The directive allows for the use of other units of measurement during a transitional period. The mile, yard, foot, inch, pint, acre, and troy ounce are allowed to be used only in those countries where they were authorized prior to 21 April 1973 and until a date to be fixed by those States. The fathom, pint, fluid ounce, gill, ounce, pound, and therm may be used where they were authorized prior to 21 April 1973 and until the year 2000. This writer assumes that the only the United Kingdom and Ireland allow these measurements today. Richard Woods Sensormatic Electronics [email protected]
