Category Archives: Regulation of the Day

If you own cattle and they are at risk of catching scabies, you may want to read up on the pertinent federal regulations. There are a lot of them.

It is illegal for a portable metal ladder to have steps narrower than 12 inches.

Not sure why that merits a regulation; ladders so narrow aren’t particularly useful. Doubt they’d sell very well.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission ($63.25 million 2008 budget, 401 employees), after much deliberation, has banned crystal rhinestones from children’s products. There is no evidence of harm.

The precautionary principle strikes again.

The Agricultural Marketing Service ($1.3 billion 2008 budget, 5,500 employees) has a potato research and marketing plan, pursuant to the Potato Research and Marketing Act. Administering the plan is not free; potato handlers and importers are charged 2.5 cents per hundredweight of potatoes for the service.

A new proposed rule on pages 36,952-36,955 of the 2009 Federal Register would raise the levy to 3 cents per hundredweight.

The U.S. Code contains an entire section on over-the-counter anti-flatulence medication. There are federal rules for active ingredients, maximum dosage, and label text.

If you ship live animals via the USPS’s Express Mail Service and it takes three days or more for them to reach their destination, you may be eligible for a refund, according to a new rule on pages 36,116-36,118 of the 2009 Federal Register.

The seventeenth in an occasional series that shines a bit of light on the regulatory state.

Today’s Regulation of the Day comes to us from the U.S. Department of Transportation ( $73 billion 2010 budget, 58,622 employees).

A new set of rules for sliding car doors will come into effect on September 1, 2010.

See pages 35,131-35,135 of the 2009 Federal Register for details.