Well said, Martin. Prompted by your writing, I searched for the comments I submitted to the very first label decades ago. So far no luck to locate it. I just remember objecting the confounded heading "Calories" where the logical, and SI, "Energy" should stand as it does in every country I surveyed, on all products, from beer to butter. There It says Energy .......XX kJ or kcal, or both, one of them in brackets. Another problem I remember addressing - the missing SI space between numbers and units.
Asking USMA for intervention did not help then, and it also did not help with trying to correct the mistakes in the light bulbs labels a couple years ago. That letter I located and am printing it below. The insurmountable problem even for USMA when dealing with FTC may be that "political science majors" head or are employed at that agency who never heard of SI and are blocking metricI for other reasons as you and others wrote. Here is the light-bulb letter.asking USMA leadership for assistance..None on the USMA forum came up with a contact, *This is about the proposed label for lightbulbs as it was published in M.T., 2010 Jan-Feb, pg 5. I wonder if you could help me find a person to whom to send the comments below (I'd rewrite it as a letter to FTC). * *The last line in the frame reads: Energy Used .......60 watts. **USMA, and every junior-high graduate, should object to the wrong unit or wrong terminology in that line. The title "energy used" has the unit joule (or some other unit for energy) not watt. The line means "energy consumption" in which case the unit watt is correct. Obviously, only the latter is useful to the buyer. Thus "energy consumption" or "energy rate" or simply "power" should be on that line accompanied by W, not the unit name.* *It is redundant to use the title "Life in Years" and accompany that title with a unit "yrs." A title such as "Life (based on 3 hours/day) ..... 1.4 years" would eliminate the redundancy while also eliminating a line of space in the label. On the same subject, I suggest to b**ase the life on 1 hour, not on 3 hours. With a "1 h" time length it is easier for anyone to scale the duration (up or down). * *The label should be consistent in using words, or abbreviations, or symbols but not the mixture. FTC could help Americans learn SI by using symbols, not words. More Americans in my experience know what 60 W means than the longer 60 watts. Most have no idea what lumen is and would learn about it as "lm" just as easily as they did with W. That would match the use of the symbol kWh in the same label. Being picky, that symbol should be made with the raised dot as kW·h, but best, of course, would be to use the joule such as kJ or MJ. * *On the positive side, I applaud the use of the kelvin, both as a spelled name and as K. On the other hand, I am at a loss as to the usefulness of this information to the average buyer. * Stan Jakuba On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 4:25 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > See attached picture for Nutrition Facts Proposed and Alternate. > > David Pearl MetricPioneer.com 503-428-4917 > > ----- Message from [email protected] --------- > Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2014 10:38:44 -0800 (PST) > From: [email protected] > Reply-To: Martin Morrison <[email protected]> > Subject: [USMA:53606] Re: [USMA-53604] US plans sweeping food label > changes > To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> > > > > I had brought this matter to the attention of this list several weeks ago >> when it was first announced. It seems to be moving much faster that could >> have been predicted, perhaps because of Michelle Obama's involvement. >> >> The danger is that some self-appointed "consumer advocate" group wanted >> to use "common measures" to describe quantities of a serving. Such >> measures would likely include the teaspoon and tablespoon that USMA Vice >> President Paul Trusten so rightfully dreads, as well as "ounces." >> >> Why Michelle Obama, having no government position, should be so involved >> in this matter is probably because of a perceived "political" benefit, >> because she has no scientific, measurement, or medical background that I am >> aware of. She is likely to be operating in ignorance, at least as far as >> it comes to measurement issues, and probably the medical issues as well. >> >> Given the cool reception of the Metric Petition by the Obama White House, >> I would not expect either Michelle or husband to be very aware of the >> measurement issues here, not to speak of the medical issues. >> >> I hope that in the last weeks, Lorelle Young, USMA President, and Paul >> Trusten have been working on an official approach to the controlling agency >> (Food & Drug Administration?), so that the U.S. Metric Association can be >> brought in as a technical consultant and have major input into the >> proposals and final design of the Nutrition Label. >> >> This is an important and practical issue into which the USMA can dig its >> teeth. These nutritional labels are viewed every day by hundreds of >> millions of people. Just think what an impact a completely metric label >> would have! >> >> Paul, being a registered pharmacist, would be in a unique position to be >> a government consultant on this matter. Not only is he familiar with the >> medical aspects, but also with the metrication aspects. >> >> Martin Morrison >> "Metric Today" Columnist >> >> ============ >> On Thu, 27 Feb 2014, Metric Rules Info wrote: >> >> I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and thought you should see >>> it: >>> >>> US plans sweeping food label changes >>> >>> First Lady Michelle Obama is to unveil plans for the most sweeping >>> overhaul of nutrition labels on US food packages in more than two decades. >>> >>> Read more: >>> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-26371692 >>> >> >> >> > > ----- End message from [email protected] ----- > >
