{"id":1265,"date":"2010-02-17T16:47:09","date_gmt":"2010-02-17T16:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=1265"},"modified":"2012-09-26T16:50:36","modified_gmt":"2012-09-26T16:50:36","slug":"weights-and-measures-keeping-pace-for-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2010\/02\/17\/weights-and-measures-keeping-pace-for-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Weights and Measures: Keeping Pace for the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 1-7 is Weights and Measures Week<\/em> <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

ANNAPOLIS, MD (Feb. 17, 2010) \u2013 Every day, Marylanders decide what to buy \u2013 groceries or gas, home heating oil or a piece of jewelry, firewood or mulch.\u00a0 These diverse purchasing decisions have one common thread: Maryland Department of Agriculture staff inspects the accuracy of weighing and measuring devices. This year\u2019s observance of Weights and Measures Week will commemorate the 211th anniversary of the signing of the first weights and measures law in the United States on March 2, 1799.
\n\u201cGovernor Martin O\u2019Malley has issued a proclamation for Weights and Measures Week to raise awareness about the important role state government officials at the Department of Agriculture have in assuring that consumers and businesses have a level playing field in the marketplace,\u201d said Agriculture Secretary Buddy Hance. \u201cPeople should be aware that there are regulations we are trying to maintain and protect that ensure fairness in commercial transactions involving anything sold by weight, measure or count.\u201d
\nMDA\u2019s Weights and Measures inspectors test many different types of weighing and measuring devices including scales, price scanning equipment, gasoline pumps, meters to measure home fuel oil deliveries and highway truck scales. An important part of their job is to randomly check packaged goods to make sure they contain the quantity printed on the label. Inspectors also investigate consumer complaints that have ranged from common gas pump grievances to the number of BBs in a box of ammunition.
\nOur inspectors keep pace with rapidly advancing technologies to ensure fairness in the marketplace. Business sectors currently use the most recent advancements in technology to determine quantities. Cutting-edge weighing and measuring equipment is also used by everyday places such as supermarkets and gasoline stations. \u201cNew innovations are being used more than ever, so it\u2019s extremely important that consumers and businesses are protected,\u201d said Weights and Measures Acting Program Manager Ken Ramsburg.
\nIn Fiscal Year 2008, field staff conducted more than 38,000 inspections of commercial weighing and measuring devices, inspected and tested more than 12,800 individual lots of prepackaged commodities (representing approximately 126,000 packages) offered for sale, and investigated more than 700 consumer complaints.
\nFor more information on the Weights and Measures Program in Maryland, or if you think the
\n\u201ccord\u201d of firewood delivered to your home is a short measure, the gasoline pump at the corner station is incorrect, or the weight or measure of any product you purchased is incorrect and you cannot get the seller to resolve the problem, contact the Maryland Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures Section, 50 Harry S Truman Parkway, Annapolis, MD\u00a0 21401, (410) 841-5790.\u00a0 Click here<\/a> for more information about Maryland Weights and Measures.
\n# # #
\nFollow MDA on Twitter: Twitter.com\/MdAgDept<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 1-7 is Weights and Measures Week ANNAPOLIS, MD (Feb. 17, 2010) \u2013 Every day, Marylanders decide what to buy \u2013 groceries or gas, home heating oil or a piece of jewelry, firewood or mulch.\u00a0 These diverse purchasing decisions have one common thread: Maryland Department of Agriculture staff inspects the accuracy of weighing and measuring  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1266,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265\/revisions\/1266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}