Federal regulatory statutes standards

Both the early Federal regulatory statutes and the more recent ones employ a wide variety of control mechanisms. These include private enforcement, government policing of the marketplace, development of voluntary and mandatory standards, and various forms of premarket notification, testing, and approval. 

Since 1970, virtually all federal health and safety statutes have adopted a general safety standard of "unreasonable risk," and have required consideration by regulatory agencies of the broad societal consequences of regulatory action. Such statutes as the Consumer Product Safety Act of 1972 ( ), the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act of 1972 ( ), and the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 ( ), adopt this approach. These statutes make no attempt to define the critical phrase "unreasonable risk," just as the earlier statutes made no attempt to define such terms as "injurious" or "safe." Some do contain a laundry list of factors to be considered in determining regulatory action, such as the effect on the... 

Standards reflecting specific congressional safety determinations. The third general type of safety/risk standard included in Federal health and safety statutes involves highly particularized congressional determinations designed to direct specific regulatory decisions. These have tj ically been of two different... 

Legislative initiatives have been put forth by several states to provide necessary regulatory authority for establishing standards for substances that could enter groundwater. This is contrasted with the federal situation which is relying upon existing water quality statutes for standard setting. 

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