Here’s the problem. For a long time now, thousands and thousands of Americans, especially young children have died due to medicine mis-dosings with ounces and teaspoons. Teaspoons are a very inaccurate measurement, resulting in huge numbers of overdoses resulting in death. The only solution is for all dosing to be in millilitres. Since millilitre dosing has begun, the number of dosing deaths have dropped significantly.

There is nothing American about the debase collection of fake units you want us to use. If you want to die, then please do take as many teaspoons of any drug as you want. The world will not miss your passing. Those of us who want to live, will be thankful for the insightful thinking of the AMA for bringing us dosing in perfect metric units.

“Is big business manufacturing only metric system syringes and cups”
“Is big business socially engineering the acceptance of metric system-use in the United States to comply with foreign countries’ measurements… rather than vice-versa… because big business can make bigger profits by selling one-fits-all cups and syringes to foreign countries, too?”

This is the typical arrogant attitude of the loser Luddite portion of the American population. The world should be using USC and be subjected to American practices than the other way around? total nonsense. The US is the minority and must conform to the majority or pay the price.

“I thought our American system of using teaspoonfuls and tablespoonfuls was our official measurement system… not the metric system of measurements. ”

This is a typical response of most Americans who are clueless to the fact that law of 1866 make the metric system fully legal and the laws of 1975 and 1992 make the metric system the official and preferred system.

“Is there some subtle, profit scheme afoot to convert our American, traditional, avoirdupois-based ounces, pounds, teaspoons, and tablespoons to metric system measurements in pharmacies?
Possibly. but isn’t that the function of any business, to be profitable and to choose the best means to be profitable? So if I can increase profits for my self and my company by using the metric system why is this a bad idea to Luddites like Kathy Rittal. Seems to me, Kathy is anti-profit, anti-business and that makes her an anti-American Communist.”

“To my knowledge, the adopted American System of Measurements is not the metric system. ”

“If there was an official changeover in the United States from our avoirdupois-based measurement system to the metric system, I would like to know… perhaps, I missed something in the recent decade.”

Not according to the laws of 1875 and 1992, which make the metric system the preferred and official system. She missed it by more than just a decade.

Dear Ms. Rittel,

Thomas Jefferson proposed a decimal system of currency and a decimal system of measurement in 1790. Decimal currency succeeded and decimal measurements came very close to succeeding.

The Metric Act of 1866 made the metric system legal for all business and affairs of the court legal in the US.

The US was one of the 17 original signers to the Treaty of the Meter, which made the metric system the standard for measurement in world trade. All but the poorest nations today are signatories.

The Mendenhall Order of 1893 abolished US standards for the yard, the gallon, the bushel, and the pound and defined those units in terms of the metric system. Thus the US units for volume and weight have been based on the metric system for 125 years.

The 1975 Metric Conversion Act called for US businesses, organizations, and people to voluntarily migrate to use of the metric system. American schools increased their teaching of the metric system to all its students.

In 1988 the Omnibus Trade and Competitive Act made the metric system the preferred system of measurement in the US and directed all federal agencies (including the FDA) to metricate. The FDA and sister agencies took steps that led to today’s use of milliliters and milligrams in medical dosages.

Further, the 1994 Fair Packaging and Labeling Act required inclusion of metric units on the packaging of most foodstuffs so that consumers would start to become familiar with them.

The metric system is thus well embedded in American history and no nation can claim a greater role than ours in the development of that system!

James Frysinger

Ms. Rittel,

Although the other people responding to your letter are quite correct to say that the metric system of measurement has been the preferred system of U.S. measurement for a long time now (for 30 years, in fact!), the complete elimination of teaspoonfuls and tablespoonfuls from U.S. oral liquid medications on the label directions of both prescription and nonprescription medicines is a recent change that began in 2011 and was completed only last year.

Not only will you see your directions in milliliters on prescription labels, you will see them, as of now, on the labels of all medicine bottles for over-the counter products. Check the “Drug Facts” area of any liquid medication product label. All doses are in milliliters (mL) ONLY, and the accompanying measuring cups are marked in milliliters only. This change is a major victory for medication safety in the U.S., because, up until now, people, especially children, were at risk of overdose if the wrong measurement unit was used. I suppose you could call it social engineering, but I call it setting a measurement standard that is long overdue in America.

Ms. Rittel – I appreciate your tongue in cheek commentary. We will prevail…someday… in the SI. My engineering career will not see it, but every time I have pulled out my little conversion calculator, I fantasized that the emergence of the little hand held calculators in the early 1970’s was largely occasioned by folks who needed help in struggling with the nonsense of the Imperial (American) system of measurement.
BTW, how many horsepower-hours of electricity do you typically use monthly in your home? It must be somewhere on your electric bill.

Americans need not be afraid of using the metric system. All countries that use the metric system had to switch to it at some time. In Australia, we switched in the 1970s without much fuss. Two big ones were switching the temperatures from Fahrenheit to Celsius, and changing the road signs, but even these ones went ahead without incident.

But this isn’t just an Australian thing. It happened in New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, South Africa, India and all the rest of the world. Even Liberia and Myanmar (Burma) use metric measures now.