[CentOS] units command, crazy output

whenever I use the units command from a script, e.g.:

elapsed=86500 echo elapsed time: `units "$elapsed sec" hms` elapsed time: *Currency exchange rates from 2012-10-24* 24 hr + 1 min + 40 sec

the man page even says it outputs that when run without arguments.

My question is why in the world does it? certainly when run from within a script doing conversions of time using the "hms" option, I don't want that to be stuck in the middle of my output.

Anybody know why it does that, or how to make it quit? (I know, I use sed to filter it out, but can't understand why I should have to.

Thanks in advance!

Fred