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Delaney Clause of Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act
The Delaney Clause is a clause in the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act designed to prevent potentially harmful, cancer-causing food ingredients. However, the utility of this clause has been questioned in recent years due to the fact that, in the decades following the passage of the act, it has become clear that there are many naturally occurring compounds in food that both cause and prevent cancer. -
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
RCRA gives EPA the authority to control hazardous waste from cradle to grave, including generation, transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal. It also set forth a framework for the management of non-hazardous solid waste. -
Clean Air Act
The Clean Air Act is the comprehensive federal law that regulates air emissions from stationary and mobile sources. Among other things, this law authorizes EPA to establish National Ambient Ari Quality Standards to protect public health and public welfare and to regulate emissions of hazardous pollutants. -
Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act is legislation that supports the "protection and propagation of fish, shellfish, wildlife and recreation in and on the water." This is accomplished by maintaining and, when necessary restoring the chemical, physical, and biological properties of properties of surface waters. -
Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act establishes protection for fish, wildlife, and plants that are listed as threatened or endangered. Additionally, it provides for adding species to and removing them from the list of threatened and endangered species, and for preparing and implementing plans for their recovery. -
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
CITES is a global treaty to ensure international trade in wild plants and animals is legal, traceable, and biologically sustainable. When governments voluntarily join the agreement, they become legally bound to create laws that regulate international trade. -
Safe Drinking Water Act
The Safe Drinking Water Act sets the national standards for safe drinking water in the United States. Under this act, the EPA is responsible for establishing maximum containment levels for 77 different elements or substances in surface water and groundwater. -
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, Liability Act
CERCLA, or the Superfund Act, is a US federal law that imposes a tax on the chemical and petroleum industries. It also funds the cleanup of abandoned and nonoperating hazardous waste sites and authorizes the federal government to respond directly to the release or threatened release of substances that may pose a threat to human health or the environment. -
Montreal Protocol
The Montreal Protocol is a global agreement to protect the stratosphere ozone layer by phasing out the production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances. It was the first treaty to achieve universal ratification by all countries in the world, has spurred global investment in alternative technologies, and placed the ozone layer, which was in peril, on a path repair. -
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement that sets a goal for global emissions of greenhouse gases from all industrialized countries to be reduced by 5.2 percent below their 1990 levels by 2012. The objective of the treaty was the "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would stop dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system."