(VDACS: Richmond, Virginia) -- As gas prices have risen in the United States, so have complaints about gasoline pumps. Employees with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) have been particularly busy responding to complaints, as well as inspecting weighing and measuring devices to ensure consumers that a gallon pumped is a gallon received. In the rare cases where consumers aren’t receiving full value, VDACS takes corrective action. But what do consumers do when the weights and measures infrastructure in their country has been dismantled by years of war? “That’s the situation in Afghanistan right now,” says Todd Haymore, VDACS commissioner. “I am so pleased that some of our employees were able to help train Afghan engineers who came to the United States to learn how to develop and maintain a system to regulate weighing and measuring devices.” The country recently established the Afghan National Standardization Authority (ANSA). Its goal is to develop the necessary infrastructure for weights and measures standards, metrology, and related quality assurance programs to establish a strong foundation for industrial development and economic growth. This summer an ANSA team is in the United States to learn how the country establishes, provides certification, and manages a regulatory system in the priority areas of food safety, pharmaceuticals, petroleum products, weights and measures, and construction material standards and regulations.

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