Terry, Here's the short-course. The goods we will talk about are those sold at retail; wholesale transactions are less strictly regulated and can be in nearly any terms that the parties wish.
Retail goods fall into three general categories when it comes to labeling requirements: federally controlled, state controlled, and uncontrolled. Federal goods are mostly covered by the FPLA but there are a few exceptions. Goods covered by the FPLA may not be labeled in metric-only (contrary to what the 1866 Metric Act might lead you to believe). An amendment is being prepared and routed through various agencies for comment; it will soon go before Congress. State-controlled goods may or may not be labeled in metric only, depending on the state (or territory, such as USVI, American Samoa, etc.). Some states (14 of them) adopt the UPLR and its amendments automatically by invocation, some adopt the UPLR and its amendments by overt legislative or agency action, some write their own regulations using the UPLR and its amendments as models, and a few go entirely their own way. Our (Metric Methods's) estimates are that over half of all Americans live in states that allow metric-only labeling on state-controlled goods. I had hoped to follow up this survey earlier but other events (my day job, my scientific research activities, Sept. 11, etc.) impeded that. I am about to change job positions at the College (see a future Metric Today for details) and I anticipate that I will have a lot more time to pursue this (as well as fishing, working around the house, fishing, learning French, fishing, etc.) You cited the page that shows the state-by-state breakdown; you may wish to see also the page above it http://www.metricmethods.com/UPLR.html and our home page (see URL below). Jim [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: .... > I did not know that US businesses are forbidden from using metric-only > by the 'people in blue with guns' as Jim might have put it. I wanted to > learn more so I typed UPLR into a search engine. That came up with the > following websites: > > http://www.metricmethods.com/UPLR_adoption.html > http://metric1.org/frindexm.htm > > That showed status as at 2000 April 27 and some of the states listed > were moving towards adoption of metric only labelling in 2000/2001. Has > progress been made? > > Then I did a search on the NIST website and found their fact sheet on > metric labelling: > > "Metric Only Quantity Declarations are not Permitted in Most Cases" > http://ts.nist.gov/ts/htdocs/230/235/metric.htm > > I am now a bit confused. What is the real situation? > -- > Terry Simpson > Human Factors Consultant > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > www.connected-systems.com > Phone: +44 7850 511794 -- Metric Methods(SM) "Don't be late to metricate!" James R. Frysinger, CAMS http://www.metricmethods.com/ 10 Captiva Row e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Charleston, SC 29407 phone/FAX: 843.225.6789
