If studies indicate that at least 1% of consumers of a certain product or service (especially medications and food products) experience negative side effects associated with the use of that product or service, or if more than 1% of consumers use the product in an unsafe manner, then its manufacturer or provider should be required to indicate this caution on the product’s label or on other official pre-purchase customer documentation.

Furthermore, if a critical number of consumers request it, product manufacturers, growers, or sellers should be required to indicate on the product’s label whether that product has a certain ingredient, has gone through a certain process, or whether that product has some other quality that consumers in that market consider necessary to know. The required percentage of consumers necessary to force labeling could probably vary from one market to another, but 10% may be a good number.

If there is a yearly sale of at least 1,000 units of a human or animal product that is intended to be put in or on the human or animal body, then each product should carry a list of its ingredients from the most abundant to the least abundant by weight. Furthermore, each ingredient consisting of at least 1% of the product’s total by weight, should be required to state its percentage on the label. Major processes that the food product has undergone (such as pasteurization, irradiation, etc.) should also be stated. If 10,000 units or more of a particular food product are sold per year, there should be the further requirement to list the nutritional information (amount of vitamins, minerals, proteins, etc.) in an absolute way, as well as in a relative way (such as percentages of recommended daily intake) on all such products intended for internal consumption. However, specifying the total recommended daily values for an average person on the label should not be required for any product.

Bottled Water Labeling

Bottled water should have the level of impurities contained within it labeled. This would giver consumers solid data they could use to measure against other brands or even tap water.

Food packages should accurately state the amount of food enclosed and not include the volume or weight of either the package itself or of the ‘filler’ (material that is not intended for consumption) that often accompanies (by necessity) the actual edible product.

Products (or services) which have a significant difference in life cycle cost when comparing high-end versus low-end purchases option, should have such differences clearly labeled out for consumers to be informed.

For example, a low-end washing machines which washes 200 loads per year but lasts only 5 years would likely cost nearly double per load than the purchase of a high-end washing machine which may last 20 years. These industry (or producer) averages should always be updated (annually) to reflect the most current statistics.

The same could be applied to cars and a host of other purchases, including software products, which could have very significant down-stream costs due to design inefficiencies.

This may be a good incentive to encourage producers to make better quality, longer-lasting products.

In order for products to claim to be “Made in the USA”, an average of at least 90% of a product’s assembly and prepackaged weight must have been made in the USA. If between 65% and 90% of a product is made and assembled in the USA, then the label “Mostly Made in the USA” can be used. A product can claim to be “Half Made in the USA” if it is between 40% and 65% made and assembled in the USA. For labor intensive products, the hours of labor spent domestically should be divided by the total hours of labor invested in the product and the resulting percentage should be used just like the manufacturing and assembly criteria mentioned above. Manufacturing, assembly and labor could be listed separately if so desired by the maker or seller.

Prescription medication labels should state either the condition for which the prescription was prescribed and/or the prescription’s general function or purpose for the person for whom it is prescribed.

Ideally only soft-bristled toothbrushes should be used for brushing teeth because they do not wear out the enamel or push up the gums as much as the medium and harder-bristled brushes do. To encourage the general population to use soft-bristled toothbrushes the government should ban the advertising of medium and hard bristled toothbrushes as toothbrushes for human use. They can still be made and advertised as something else, but not as toothbrushes for human use.

To further reduce the incidence of dental problems among the population, all toothbrush packages labeled for individual sale should be required to have proper use instructions that warn against pushing too hard against the teeth when brushing because doing so would likely result in long term damage to the teeth and gums.

Ceramic, glass, plastic, etc., dishes, cups, cookware, etc., that are oven and/or microwave safe should have this fact written somewhere on the actual items themselves. Plastic dishes that are designed for only a single microwave use should clearly indicate this fact on the dish itself. Plastic dishes should be labeled to inform consumers whether or not they are microwave safe. Dishes or trays intended for single use in a microwave should be labeled as such.

Electronic equipment should be required to indicate the safe and acceptable ambient temperature range in which the product could be expected to function without significantly increased malfunction rates if such temperature ranges are narrower or in any way more restrictive than what should be the 0˚C (32˚F) – 70˚C (158˚F) standard for commercial and consumer electronic products. If any component requires active cooling to keep its temperatures within these (or otherwise safe) operating temperatures, this fact should also be indicated.

Many, if not all, electronic equipment, especially the more expensive kinds, should have the built-in ability to warn of excessively high (maybe also low) temperatures, and maybe also the ability to shut themselves off to prevent damage to the equipment.

The screen sizes of televisions and computer monitors should only be defined and described as the actual viewable area. In other words, a computer monitor advertised as a 19″ model (even if it is a CRT) should have a viewable area of 19 inches.

Restaurant menus should state the average weight (or volume of liquids) for each menu item. In addition, menus could also state the price per unit (weight or volume) of food. This would allow people to compare economic value between dishes. Such labeling would help people who just want to get the most food for the least amount of money and who may not care too much about what they eat.

In addition, restaurant food menus should be required to state roughly the amount of calories (within a range of about 100 calories) a dish or entree has. For example, a menu could state that the Rooty Tooty breakfast has between 1,200 and 1,300 calories, on average.

Maps and other documents should have the year in which they were published printed on them in an easy to find place.

Product manufacturers should change at least the part numbers and possibly any other identifying name or label if the product has changed noticeably or significantly from a previous version. Extending part numbers to various places behind the decimal and changing those numbers with each noticeable or significant change would be sufficient.

Perforation Regulations

The packaging of toilet paper should contain information relating to the relative ease, regularity and predictability of the sheets of toilet paper tearing along the perforations.

Directional Arrows

It should also be recommended for manufactures to print arrows on the rolls of toilet paper so that the user would be able to determine, with far less effort, the direction in which the paper is rolled so that its proper orientation and placement on the spindle could be more quickly determined.