Government, federal

Following is a summary of the most important federal statues concerned in whole or in part with the regulation of toxic substances. 

Clean Air Act. The Clean Air Act is administered by the EPA. Although the principal enforcement provisions are the responsibility of local governments, overall administrative responsibility rests with EPA. This act requires criteria documents for air pollutants and sets both national air quality standards and standards for sources that create air pollutants, such as motor vehicles, power plants, and so on. Important actions already taken under this law include standards for the now complete phased-out elimination of lead in gasoline, and the setting of sulfuric acid air emission guidelines for existing industrial plants. 

Safe Drinking Water Act. (1974, 1986, 1996). Specifically applied to water supplied for humans consumption, this act requires the EPA to set maximum levels for contaminants in water delivered to users of public water systems. Two criteria are established for a particular contaminant the maximum containment level goal (MCGL) and the maximum contaminant level (MCL). The former, the MCLG, is the level at which no 

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). This is an attempt to deal with the many waste sites that exist across the nation. It covers remedial action, including the establishment of a National Priorities List to identify those sites that should have a high priority for remediation. This act authorizes the cleanup of hazardous waste sites, including those containing pesticides, that threaten human health or the environment. If they can be identified, the US EPA is authorized to recover cleanup costs from those parties responsible for the contamination. CERCLA provides a fund to pay for the cleanup of contaminated sites when no other parties are able to conduct the cleanup. The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) (1986) is an amendment to CERCLA that enables the US EPA to identify and cleanup inactive hazardous waste sites and to recover reimbursement of cleanup costs. One section of CERCLA authorizes the EPA to act whenever there is a release or substantial threat of release of a hazardous substance or any pollutant or contaminant that may present an imminent or substantial danger to the public health or welfare into the environment. 

Consumer Products Safety Act and Consumer Products Safety Commission Improvements Act. Administered by a Consumer Products Safety Commission, the Consumer Products Safety Act is designed to protect the public against risk of injury from consumer products and to set safety standards for such products. 

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Massive studies of the health problems associated with fats have included the Anti-Coronary Club study in New York City (2), the Framingham study (3) in Massachusetts, and the Chicago study (4). These studies were financed by the United States federal government and supported by the Surgeon General s office, which issued a statement recommending that the fat component of the diet be reduced from an estimated 40% of calories to 30% (5). 

The printed pubHshed document which represents the patent rights granted by the Federal Government can be a complex Hterary work. There are specific and rigid legal requirements for the description, disclosure, and definiteness which support these affirmative rights and enable enforcement of those rights by the inventor or owner of the patent. The basis for this fiiU and complete disclosure of the invention in the patent is clearly articulated in the U.S. Constitution. 

In addition, the decreasing scientific hteracy among the U.S. general pubhc, in the national media, and in state and federal government raises concerns over the society s ability to assess and balance technological risks and rewards objectively, and to put them in perspective with other needs. 

Authority for protection of patents and copyrights is set out in the Constitution and is the exclusive province of the federal government. Eederal legislation to protect trademarks is based on the authority of Congress, under the commerce clause of the Constitution, to regulate interstate and foreign commerce of the United States protection afforded by individual states is based on their power to regulate intrastate commerce. 

Properties, Specifications, and Test Methods Standard test methods are required to measure the properties of electroplated materials. Documents on plating specifications for many phases of the plating process are pubHshed by such organizations as the Federal government, the military, ASTM, ISO, SAE, etc. An excellent cross-index of these is available (37). 

In 1965 the Water Quahty Act established a new trend in water pollution control. It provided that the states set water quality standards in accordance with federal guidelines. If the states f ed to do so, the standards would be set by the federal government subject to a review hearing. In 1966, the Clean Water Restoration Act transferred the Feder Water Pollution Control Administration from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare to the Department of the Interior. It also gave the Interior Department the responsibility for the Oil Pollution Act. 

Individuals Consumer and health professionals Manufacturers Building owners and managers Builders and architects State and local governments Federal government... 

Administratively, the genesis of these Laboratories, which initially were called Interdisciplinary Research Laboratories and later. Materials Research Laboratories, involved many complications, most of them in Washington, not least when in 1972 responsibility for them was successfully transferred to the National Science Foundation (NSF). As Sproull cynically remarks To those unfamiliar with the workings of federal government (and especially Capitol Hill), transfer of a program sounds simple, but it is simple only if the purpose of transfer is to kill the program . 

Aside from private consultants, local, state, or federal government agencies may be able to provide expert assistance or direction in solving lAQ problems. It is particularly important to contact a local or state health department if one suspects that there is a serious building-related illness potentially linked to biological contamination in a building. 

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