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We are pleased to bring you the January 2024 OWM newsletter and to highlight our ongoing NCWM collaboration to support the 2024 National Price Verification survey. We also provide an update on our 2023 edition of NIST Handbook 143, the publication of our 2024 NIST Handbooks 44, 130, and 133, as well as the upcoming changes to OWM’s support of NVLAP fees for the laboratory metrology community. Finally, we welcome a few new staff and associates to NIST OWM, celebrate recent awards and a successful PT program in 2023, and say farewell to our recent retirees.
Enjoy our articles, and as always, we welcome your suggestions and feedback. Best regards to all for a happy and prosperous New Year!
Katrice Lippa, NIST OWM Chief
 2024 National Price Verification Survey
NIST Office of Weights and Measures (OWM) is collaborating with the National Conference on Weights and Measures (NCWM), together with 28 state and 38 local weights and measures jurisdictions to conduct a National Price Verification Survey in early 2024, to evaluate how well retails stores across the country are maintaining price accuracy. The National Survey will cover a range of store types including grocery, supercenters, big box/department, warehouse/club, dollar/discount, convenience, drug/pharmacy, automotive, home centers, and clothing retail stores found in the retail sector of the consumer market. Statistical information, such as the total number of stores examined and number of items inspected, together with the percent of accuracy (or compliance rates), overcharges vs undercharges, and range of and average errors will be collected and collated based on store types.
Changes to State Laboratory Support for NVLAP Accreditation
NIST OWM upholds a principal directive to facilitate, enable, and ensure the state legal metrology community in achieving national uniformity and maintaining the highest level of measurement practices across all U.S. states and regions. As an acknowledgement of laboratory performance and capabilities, OWM has encouraged and provided full financial support for state metrology laboratories seeking accreditation through NIST’s National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP).
Beginning this year, OWM will only be able to provide partial financial support to state metrology laboratories to cover NVLAP accreditation fees. Effective April 1, 2024, it will be necessary for state laboratory programs to cover the cost of the base administrative fees that are used to support the annual maintenance of the accreditation. However, OWM will continue to support the fees associated with the NVLAP laboratory onsite assessments, which is a natural extension of the OWM recognition program.
 Mike Hicks (OWM) presenting Certificates of Appreciation to Evan Johnson (KS), Mauro Nieves (AZ), and Whitney Corley (LA) at RMAP meeting (August 31, 2023.)
OWM Recognizes Contributions of Proficiency Testing Coordinators at RMAPs
The OWM Laboratory Metrology group operates an ISO 17043 compliant Proficiency Testing (PT) program that assesses the effectiveness of the metrology training efforts for the state laboratory participants and the traceability of the state metrology laboratories to the SI through NIST. Participants of the PT program include federal and commercial laboratories across the U.S., in addition to state legal metrology laboratories.
NIST Handbook 143 (2023) Now Published
The 7th edition of NIST Handbook 143, OWM Recognition Program Handbook is now published and available via the OWM website. This 2023 edition supersedes the 2019 edition of NIST Handbook 143.
There will be no significant changes to the OWM Recognition Program as a result of this revision. Participants can expect the program to operate in the same manner as it did before this publication. The primary updates found within this revision clarify the technical content and editorial updates to ensure consistency with other revised documentary standards, National Volunteer Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP), and other accreditation body programs. Also, the technical guideline sections have been restored as normative Annexes in Appendix E and are based on the 2019 NVLAP Handbook 150-2 publication. Further, OWM training requirements were clarified, and measurement parameter echelons were added to allow ease of reference for applying decision rules to conformity assessment statements. Lastly, numerical values used to evaluate and score criteria for the Recognition Scoring Model were also added.
In addition, ASTM E617 “Standard Specification for Laboratory Weights and Precision Mass Standards” has been revised. This revision now aligns ASTM Class 6 with Handbook 105-1 (1990) NIST Class F tolerances and more. Training regarding the updates made to ASTM E617 and Handbook 143 will be provided during the 2024 Regional Measurements Assurance Program (RMAP) events. All state laboratory programs should be sure to acquire and implement the latest revision of these documentary standards in their quality management system without undue delay.
2024 Editions of NIST Handbooks 44 and 130
The 2024 edition of NIST Handbook 44 and NIST Handbook 130 are now available electronically in PDF format on the OWM website. A WORD version will be available by mid-January. There were no changes to NIST Handbook 133, so the 2023 edition remains the current version. Printing of the current editions of the three NIST Handbooks (44, 130, and 133) is currently underway and handbooks are anticipated to be shipped to all new NCWM members in January 2024.
NIST Handbook 130 has a new Uniform E-commerce Regulation that provides clear requirements as to what type of information regarding the identity, net quantity, responsible party, and display of the price will be required on e-commerce sites that offer products for sale. In addition, there were new requirements added related to cannabis and cannabis-containing products in the Uniform Weights and Measures Law, Method of Sale and Uniform Packaging and Labeling Regulation. There were also modifications to the Method of Sale and the Uniform Fuels and Automotive Lubricants Regulations for gasoline and gasoline oxygenate blends and dispenser filters.
Please note that next year (025) will be the last year that printed copies of NIST Handbooks 44, 130, and 133 will be available through NIST OWM. All future copies of NIST Handbooks will be available as fully electronic (non-print) formats via our NIST Handbook webpage. To benefit all stakeholders, NIST will be converting each Handbook into fully indexed and searchable digital forms, for which individualized content can be easily extracted and displayed (e.g., via web browsers) and/or downloaded and printed on-demand by each NCWM member or other stakeholders.
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Ralph Richter recognized with a
2023 B. Stephen Carpenter Award for Strategic International Engagement
This NIST-issued award recognizes outstanding achievement in building and strengthening strategic, meaningful, significant, and sustainable ties between NIST and the international measurement community, including other national metrology institutes, regional metrology organizations, and/or relevant international organizations who play a role in the global measurement system.
Ralph Richter was selected to receive the 2023 B. Stephen Carpenter for Strategic International Engagement Award to recognize his leadership in legal metrology through numerous international standards bodies to develop a consistent measurement instrumentation framework used in the billion-dollar-per-day global trade of key industrial commodities. Since 2000, Ralph has served on and convened many technical committees to develop model national metrology systems that both elevate emerging economies and connect to the U.S. weights and measures system. Ralph Richter's significant success to coordinate, lead, and deliver international standards for a range of measurement systems and legal metrology infrastructure for essential products (water, liquid foods, and fuel) serves as the basis of fair and equitable trade in the global marketplace.
Ralph will be presented with his award at the 51st Annual NIST Awards Ceremony on January 24, 2024.
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Lisa Warfield Retires from NIST OWM
After 40 years of federal service, Lisa Warfield has retired as a Weights and Measures Coordinator for the NIST Office of Weights and Measures (OWM). Lisa served as an expert technical advisor to regulatory weights and measures programs in many areas related to package labeling, checking net content, method of sale, weights and measures laws and regulations, and price verification test procedures. She was also leading OWM’s efforts with recent activities related to cannabis product labeling. Prior to joining NIST OWM in 2007, Lisa worked for many years in the NIST National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP) tracking over 1200 laboratories for on-site visits, nonconformity responses, and reviews and providing support to the overall NVLAP processes and financial management systems.
During her tenure with NIST OWM, Lisa served in several technical leadership roles on multiple technical work groups, including the National Conference on Weights and Measures (NCWM)’s Laws and Regulations (L&R) Committee, on which she served as lead technical advisor. Lisa served as editor to NIST Handbook 130 Uniform Laws and Regulations in the Areas of Legal Metrology and Fuel Quality and NIST Handbook 133 Checking the Net Contents of Packaged Goods throughout her career at NIST. She served as a NIST Technical Advisor for the U.S. National Work Group on electricity-measuring devices and submetering. Lisa received the Department of Commerce Bronze Medal for her leadership in developing uniform legal metrology requirements for electric vehicle charging and submetering adopted by the 50 states in 2019.
Lisa was instrumental in developing technical analysis and interpretations of specific provisions of the weights and measures laws and regulations. While she provided technical expertise and support to the weights and measures community, many OWM staff also relied on her expertise for managing the basis of many of our technical documents, including the commonly accessed and annually updated NIST Handbooks 44, 130, and 133, the biannual OWM Technical Analysis documents, and the SP2200 Annual Report.
Lisa notes “I have thoroughly enjoyed my career in the federal government, and I have loved both the work and working with all the bright and dedicated people in Weights and Measures. I wish everyone the very best and I am excited for my next adventure!”
Please join us in our sincere appreciation to Lisa for her outstanding achievements and notable career at NIST OWM and to the weights and measures community.
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OWM Welcomes State Laboratory Metrologists as NIST Associates
NIST OWM is pleased to welcome Lisa Corn and Kate Smetana as new NIST Associates in the Laboratory Metrology Program.
Lisa Corn serves as Laboratory Manager for the Texas Department of Agriculture’s Giddings Metrology Laboratory. Lisa brings over 15 years of laboratory metrology experience initially as a metrology laboratory technician and now through supervising laboratory staff, operations, and responsibility for providing SI traceable measurement results for the mass and volume metrology services across Texas.
Kate Smetana is a Metrologist and Quality Manager for the Colorado Metrology Laboratory. Kate also brings with her over 15 years of laboratory metrology experience including a significant role in designing Colorado’s new laboratory facility and increasing their laboratory's scope of accreditation to include Echelon I calibration services.
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International Legal Metrology Program Welcomes Dr. Michael Nelson
Mike joins OWM with a wealth of experience in metrology and in developing standards that promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness. Since achieving a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Maryland in 2013, he has served in the NIST Measurement Laboratory (MML) Chemical Sciences Division.
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More to Welcome and Wish Farewell!
After 20 years at NIST, Barbara Cohn has retired as the Office Manager for the NIST Office of Weights and Measures (OWM). Many of you may have corresponded with Barbara over the years, through our general owm@nist.gov email or directly through phone when you call our office. Barbara always enjoyed meeting and interacting with the many weights and measures professionals she encountered over the years. Barbara previously worked at the U.S. Department of State and after many years of federal service, she is now happy to enjoy her retirement and spend more time with family and friends.
We now welcome Nicole Moore to OWM as our new Office Manager effective January 1, 2024. Nicole was recently hired by NIST last year as an administrative assistant to NIST’s Physical Measurement Laboratory office before joining OWM. She is excited to learn all about OWM and to provide top-notch customer service to the weights and measures community.
Rich Montgomery, our AV Production Specialist, has taken a new position as a senior technical media advisor at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) effective January 1, 2024. Rich worked with NIST OWM for nearly 2 years in designing and building our training studio onsite at NIST and developed several metric program educational videos, Handbook training videos, and other video products. Rich has been instrumental in helping us envision and shape our training portfolio through his expertise, professionalism, and creative energy through the use of current video technology.
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Weights and Measures in the News
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World Metrology Day formally endorsed by UNESCO
The declaration of World Metrology Day by UNESCO, to be observed annually on 20 May, will open new opportunities for the BIPM and OIML to promote and enhance global awareness of metrology's role in everyday life.
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