Environmental Protection Agency

Powerful Environmental Laws

Also in 1955, the Air Pollution Control Act was passed. This was followed by the 1958 Food Additive Amendment or the Delaney Amendment requiring the Food and Drug Administration to ban any food additives that were suspected of causing cancer. However, it wasn't until 1962, when a book, Silent Spring, written by Rachel Carson was published, reflecting the public's growing concern about the effects of synthetic chemicals on all living things. More powerful environmental laws and finally, the Environmental Protection Agency was created.

In 1963, the Clean Air Act was passed and initially gave the secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare the power to define air quality based on scientific research. Then in 1969, after one of the Great Lakes (Lake Erie) was declared dead as the result of industrial pollutants, and an oil spill off the California coast led to extensive damage to wildlife, the demand for an Environmental Protection Agency was further empowered. In 1969, by executive order, President Richard Nixon created the EPA, designed to enforce the new 1970 Clean Air Act. The EPA was initially charged with the responsibility of identifying air pollutants hazardous to humans and to publish air-quality criteria through the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. These standards mandated two levels of protection for health and welfare and required the states to develop similar implementation plans to protect the air. In the early 2000s, many states still had not met the required standards set up by the EPA.

From 1972 through 1982 the U.S. States Congress created or amended a variety of pieces of legislation designed to control and manage polluting industries and sanction, fine, or punish those companies that violated these regulatory laws. All of these laws are administered or enforced by the EPA and include the

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