SI units

[Karin Gordon <kgordon@cc.UManitoba.CA>]

Hello from the Great White North!!

Up here in Canada, for the past ten years or so we've been buying our meat
in kilogram units, our gasoline in litres, discussing the weather in
degrees Celsius, etc. The AECB, our regulatory agency, has used the SI
units for radiation for at least 15 years, probably longer.  Our TLD badge
results come expressed in mSv units.  Radiation therapy is administered in
centigray units.  In most of the eight Nuclear Medicine departments I
consult to, the young techs use the SI system exclusively, administer
multi-megabecquerel quantities of radiopharmaceuticals to their patients
and don't even know how much activity there is in a millicurie.  Those of
us who have been around longer (still quite young at heart, but with a LOT
more experience), are familiar with both systems of measurement - and
generally find the SI system more logical and easier to use. Yes, we
squawked loudly when Canada's government decided to follow the rest of the
world and leave our enormous neighbour to the south in measurement
"isolationism" (just one of the many areas of USA isolationism we could
talk about <grin>).  However, most of us got over the trauma, grumbled a
bit and then learned the new SI systems of measurement (Celsius, metres,
grams, tonnes, litres, hectares, Becquerels, Grays, Sieverts, etc) and if
necessary (when talking to our Yankee friends and neighbours) can convert
on the fly.  Our kids and students only know the SI system of measurement,
and I've been told the old systems are somewhat ludicrous (according to my
3 daughters, ages 16-22).  Some folks are still using the old system to
express radiation units, but over the next decade or so, will likely be
SI-zed. 

I've travelled extensively in Europe, and more recently in Central America
where the SI system is the norm, so it's one less thing to adapt to!