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Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act
Is the nation's major law regulating contaminants in food, including pesticides. The Food and Drug Administration implements most of this law; the Environmental Protection Agency carries out its pesticides standard setting provisions. -
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U.S. Environmental Laws
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Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act
Controls the safe distribution and application of pesticides. -
Atomic Energy Act
Was passed because of the government's keen interest in monitoring the commercial and national defense uses of atomic energy. Government concerns included radiation hazards and the disposal of radioactive waster. -
Non-Proligeration Treaty
A multilateral treaty which aims to control the spread of nuclear weapons. -
Clean Air Act
Sets goals and standards for the quality and purity of air in the United State. -
National Environmental Policy Act
Was the first of the modern environmental statutes. NEPA created environmental policies and goals for the country, and established the President's council on Environmental Quality. -
Clean Water Act
Establishes and maintains goals and standards for U.S. water quality and purity. Increases control on toxic pollutants. -
Coastal Zone Managment Act
Provides a partnership structure allowing states and the federal government to work together for the protection of U.S. coastal zones from environmentally harmful overdevelopment. -
Marine Mammal Protection Act
Seeks to protect whales, dolphins, sea lions, seals, manatees, and other species of marine mammals, many of which remain threatened or endangered. -
Endangered Species Act
Is designed to protect and recover endangered and threatened species of fish, wildlife and plants in the United States and beyond. -
Safe Drinking Water Act
Establishes drinking water standards for tap water safety, and requires rules for groundwater protection from underground injection. -
Federal Land Policy and Management Act
Provides for protection of the scenic, scientific, historic and ecologic values of feeral lands and for public involvement in their management. -
Fisheries Conservation and Management Act
Governs the management and control of U.S. marine fish populations, and is intended to maintain and restore healthy levels of fish stocks and prevent overharvesting. -
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
Seeks to prevent the creation of toxic waste dumps by setting standards for the management of hazardous waste. -
Toxic substance Control Act
Authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the manufacture, distribution, import and processing of certain toxic chemicals. -
Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act
Is intended to ensure that coal mining activity is conducted with sufficient protections of the public and the environment, and provides for the restoration of abandoned mining areas to beneficial use. -
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act
Requires the cleanup of sites contaminated with toxic waste. This law is commonly refered to as "Superfund." -
Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act
Requires companies to disclose information about toxic chemicals they released into the air and water and dispose of on land. -
Proposition 65
Is a California Law passed by voter initiative. Proposition 65 is designed to provide public warnings aboput the risk of exposure to toxic chemicals and to eliminate toxins fom drinking water supplies. -
Montreal Protocol
International agreement signed by more than 150 countries to limit the production of substances harmful to the stratospheric ozone layer, such as CFCs. -
Oil Pollution Act
Enacted a year after the disastrous Exxon Valdez oil spil in Alaska. this law streamlines federal response to oil spills by requiring oil storage facilities and vessels to prepare spill-response plans and provide for their rapid implementation. -
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
An international agreement for dealing with climate change. -
Food Quality protection Act
Is designed to ensure that levels of pesticide residues in food meet strict standards for public health protection. Under this law, which overhauled the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, the environmental Protection Agency is required to better protect infants and children from pesticides in food and water. -
The Kyoto Protocol
An international agreement setting binding limits on emissions of greenhouse gases from industrialized countries. -
Comprehensice Test Ban Treaty
A proposed treaty to prohibit all testing of nuclear weapons in all environments: underground, underwater, in the atmosphere and in space.