Gene Mechtly wrote:
> The agenda of the NCWM Interem Meeting (2003 Jan 12-15 in Florida) is
now
> posted at <www.ncwm.net/Pub15.pdf>.

Thanks. I took a look through the pdf file. I don't think I quite
understand it but perhaps you might indulge my comments:

1. I notice examples of legal text such as:
'fresh poultry is defined as poultry above 3�C (26 �F)'
'A minimum test load of 5000 kg (10 000 lb)'.

these finer points of product definitions and test procedures could be
simplified to:

'fresh poultry is defined as poultry above 3�C'
'A minimum test load of 5000 kg'.

This would not only simplify and declutter the text, but it would remove
ambiguities of interpretation that need additional clarification. Every
time that there are dual units, there is the question of ensuring that
everybody knows which one takes precedence, whether natural rounding is
acceptable, and other problems. 

I see this sort of issue all over US regulations. For example, the FPLA
has examples like: "4 square feet (37.1 dm2)" 

Is it not about time that regulations stopped being so shy with metric
units? It is not as if they are for the benefit of the public, these are
matters for engineers, lawyers, courts.



2. I note that the proposed new text relating to retail food scales,
animal scales and grain hopper scales is non-metric only. There are
other examples of non-metric only units that can be discovered by
searching the document with the keyword 'pounds',

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