Changing to a different blood pressure unit faces no different consequences than changing to any other unit (the US could not compare radioactivity readings with the Russians at Chernobyl, for example) except that blood pressure reading is universal like the BMI reading: just the numbers. The pressure reading has no unit with most people. And unlike the BMI, nobody calculates it (or needs to).
With tire pressure, it is not just a change, it is unification from the 4 units in common use. Decades ago, I bought tire pressure gages in Europe that had no unit (symbol or name) stated on their dial. The symbol kPa has been visible on the fenders of trucks, buses, ... for decades and there is enough people by now who treat tire pressure just as the blood [pressure or BMI -no unit needs to be stated. Stan Jakuba On Wed, Aug 24, 2011 at 10:14 PM, John Candido <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, I live in Australia and we are predominantly a metric nation. > However, we have not been consistent with things such as the measurement of > blood pressure in medicine and air pressure in meteorology. The measurement > of blood pressure in millimetres of mercury instead of kPa (kilopascals) is > a prime example of this inconsistency. A normal blood pressure reading for > an adult in millimetres of mercury is 120 on 80, and its equivalent in kPa > is 16 on 10. In addition, what about the measurement of air pressure in > millibars, which is the current method? Will this be converted to > hectopascals of air pressure in the future? Thank you. **** > > ** ** > > *Sincerely yours, John Candido. * > > ** ** >
