Another week goes by and the so-called "metric martyrs" are still in the press, this time complaining that market inspectors in Hackney were instructed to target Ms Devers because she was known to be selling in lbs (Hackney Gazette: Metric martyrs targeted claim). Oh dear, doesn't it seem a shame that public officials who's job it is to enforce the law are being asked to keep an eye on somebody who they think may be breaking it? Well, frankly no it doesn't!

But wait... what's this we seen the Daily Mail on Wednesday? It would seem that hospitals aren't using their scales properly and this could put patients at risk. Some aren't being properly maintained and some (shock horror!) are even being switched to imperial measures! (Daily Mail: Hospital weighing scales put the health of millions of NHS patients at risk). Well now, that's an interesting turn of events in the Daily Mail who are usually staunchly anti-metric, but the story does show how dual standards seem to apply depending on who is measuring what.

One of the many silly claims put over by the imperial luddites is  that metric is good in a scientific and engineering environment but bad in the home and the shops, meaning they believe that it's ok to use metric in your job but when you go to the corner shop you're supposed to switch to imperial. Well, frankly this is just silly and it's this sort of attitude that is making the whole process of metrication in the UK harder. Simply the same system should be used everywhere. Granted there is much to be done from the viewpoint of educating the public and there are so many metric-only products out there that this shouldn't be an issue. I've always said that if somebody claims they don't understand what 1kg is to get a bag of sugar... then I read somewhere that one imperial ludite thought it silly to make such comparisons, in which case why do they insist on comparing things to football pitches (the size of which varies wildly) or double decker buses or jumbo jets? Those comparisons could be consisered just as silly but at the end of the day do a good job of giving a person a point of reference. If somebody doesn't understand metric weight... use the bag of sugar!!!

So, back to the bag of sugar... a person who weighs themselves at home or at the diet club may think they're about 11 stone or 168 lb, but then they visit the doctor who weighs them and says "You're 76 kg". Does that person know if that's right or not? The doctor could well have said 70 kg or 90 kg and that person would likely not know the difference, they get the wrong dose of medicine or anaesthetic, need I say more? Now, if the same person is used to buying everything in metric and also weighs themselves at home in metric then no problem, any mistake the doctor may make will be more readilly noticed by the patient!

Well, it seems that LACORS (the Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services) the organisation who advise both the NHS and trading standards officials have some pretty strong advice for the NHS, basically: Replace all dual-unit scales with metric ones, then don't convert for patients - if they want imperial, let them convert themselves (click here for the press release and here for the actual report). Very sound advice if you ask me, something that should really be applied equally to the supermarket and the market stall in my opinion, since if it were to happen then people would soon get fed up of converting and would use metric more often. Perhaps if the NHS follow this advice then perhaps it will help, however unless the diet industry and the national press follow suit then it's still going to be a tough nut to crack, one not helped by the Department of Education who are to send out advice to parents on the weights of their children in dual units!

As a final note to this blog... the NHS is actually legally required to operate in metric only but there is anicdotal evidence that they sometimes use imperial measures when they shouldn't. It's also becoming evident that even in the USA that the medical profession is being told it should use metric only - for reasons of safety! Since the diet industry seems to be predominantly American, perhaps if the USA can get their hospitals in order the American people and diet industry may follow!