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Delaney Clause of Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act
The Delaney Clause of Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act requires the FDA to ban food additives which are found to cause or induce cancer in humans or animals as indicated by testing. It mandates drug manufacturers to submit evidence of new drugs' safety and effectiveness before marketing and distribution to the public. -
Clean Air Act
The Clean Air Act establishes federal standards for mobile sources of air pollution and their fuels, and sources of 187 hazardous air pollutants. It establishes a comprehensive permit system for all major sources of air pollution, as well as a cap-and-trade program for the emissions that cause acid rain. -
Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act establishes the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants into the waters of the United States and regulates quality standards for surface waters. It has made it unlawful to discharge any pollutant from a point source into navigable waters, and developed national water quality criteria recommendations for pollutants in surface waters. -
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
The Convention a global agreement signed by 184 parties that regulates or bans international trade in species under threat. It was designed to ensure that international trade in animals and plants does not threaten their survival in the wild. -
Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act provides a framework to conserve and protect endangered and threatened species and their habitats both domestically and abroad. It includes the listing and protection of species, designation of critical habitat and avoidance of its destruction, and consultation by federal agencies regarding actions that may harm listed species. -
Safe Drinking Water Act
The Safe Drinking Water Act was established to protect the quality of drinking water in the U.S. This law focuses on all waters actually or potentially designed for drinking use, whether from above ground or underground sources. This act also establishes maximum contaminant levels for over 90 different pollutants in drinking water. -
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act sets national goals for protecting human health and the natural environment from the potential hazards of waste disposal, conserving energy and natural resources, reducing reducing the amount of waste generated through source reduction and recycling, and ensuring the management of waste in an environmentally sound manner. Unlike the Superfund, RCRA manages hazardous waste in facilities that are currently in use. -
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, Liability Act
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, Liability Act is a U.S. law that gives the federal government broad authority to regulate hazardous substances and develop long-term solutions for the nation's most serious hazardous waste problems. It provides a "Superfund" to clean up uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites, as well as accidents, spills, and other emergency releases of pollutants. -
Montreal Protocol
The Montreal Protocol is a global agreement to protect the stratospheric ozone layer by phasing out the production and consumption of ozone-depleting chemicals. The Montreal Protocol has been successful in slowing and reversing the increase of ozone depleting gasses such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) into the atmosphere. -
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is the world's only legally binding treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It calls for the reduction of six greenhouse gasses in 41 countries plus the European Union to 5.2% below 1990 levels, and commits industrialized countries to limit and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with agreed individual targets.