Their measure would give the Treasury Department health and safety authority over the gun industry, and any rational regulator with that authority would ban handguns.

If a product earns the eco label, manufacturers cannot use the much-touted phrase "environmentally friendly," which regulators have banned as a misnomer.

The government has yet to respond, Mr. Saraf said, though investment rules clearly require regulators to ban investments from "unfriendly" countries.

British regulators have essentially banned mergers among domestic banks, saying it would limit consumers' choices, leaving the field open to foreign suitors.

The Dublin office has been linked to several insurance improprieties, and Australian regulators recently banned Mr. Houldsworth from the insurance market there.

The regulator, which was then the IBA, banned the film without seeing it and without giving official reasons other than "broadcasting policy".

Two years ago, regulators at Health Canada, the country's equivalent of the F.D.A., banned the use of all low-carb claims on packages.

But regulators here on Friday banned the use of melamine in vegetable proteins made for export or for use in domestic food supplies.

In the republic most people first hear about a new book by Mr. Adams through reports that broadcasting regulators have banned advertisements for it.

Even when safer techniques become widely available, federal regulators rarely ban older, less-safe production techniques.