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EPA
Facts for kids
The following fact
sheet contains interesting facts and information on the
goals, purpose and activities of the EPA
for kids.
EPA
Facts for kids: Goals, Purpose and Function of the EPA
EPA
Facts - 1:
The Clean Air Act of 1970 was designed to control air
pollution on a national level, moving far more
aggressively to regulate air quality at a pace
acceptable to public demands. The Clean Air Act of 1970
established National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)
to curb pollution.
EPA
Facts - 2:
The Clean Air Act of 1970 resulted in the establishment
of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA
was authorized via Reorganization Plan No. 3, an
executive order submitted to Congress on July 9, 1970 by
President Nixon and established on December 2, 1970.
EPA
Facts - 3:
The reason the EPA was established was to consolidate
federal research into one agency to ensure environmental
protection.
EPA
Facts - 4:
The purpose of the EPA was to enact control programs,
collect data and conduct research into the prevention of
pollution, the ecosystem and global change. It is the
responsibility of the EPA to write and enforce
regulations based on laws passed by Congress.
EPA
Facts -
5: The 1970 Clean Air
Act required that the EPA identified and set standards
for pollutants identified as harmful to the environment
and human health. 'Primary standards' set limits to
protect public health and 'Secondary standards' set
limits to protect against public welfare effects, such
as damage to vegetation or crops
EPA
Facts -
6: The 1970 law
required that the EPA set National Ambient Air Quality
Standards (NAAQS) for six common air pollutants, (also
known as "criteria pollutants"). The Six Common Air
Pollutants, or "criteria pollutants" are:
● Carbon
monoxide
● Nitrogen
dioxide
● Ground-level
Ozone
● Sulfur dioxide
● Particulate
matter (a complex mixture of extremely small
particles in soot, smoke, dirt and liquid droplets
with an aerodynamic size less than 10 micrometers)
● Lead
EPA
Facts -
7: The hazards to
public health caused by lead had long been recognized
but the 1970 law required a 'Leaded gasoline phase down'
aimed at phasing out leaded gas by the mid-1980s. This
was one of the most important environmental health
initiatives ever to be established.
EPA
Facts -
8: The EPA calculates
the "Air Quality Index" (AQI) for five of the major air
pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act: ground-level
ozone, particle pollution, carbon monoxide, sulfur
dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. If the air in a specific
region has pollution levels a "Code Orange" or
"Code Red" air quality condition is in effect.
EPA
Facts -
9:
Amendments to the Clean Air Act in 1990 focused on
further reducing air pollutant emissions and addressing
continuing concerns about air pollution. In the 1990 law
Congress also recognized that Native American Indian
Tribes have the authority to implement air pollution
control programs.
EPA
Facts -
10: The Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) works with industries and all
levels of government to stop polluting the Earth and to
save energy.
EPA
Facts -
11: The EPA is led by
its Administrator, who is appointed by the president and
approved by Congress. Its headquarters are in
Washington, D.C. with regional offices for each of the
agency's ten regions. The EPA currently has 27 research
laboratories.
EPA
Facts -
12: The EPA began regulating greenhouse
gases (GHGs) from mobile and stationary sources of air
pollution for the first time on January 2, 2011
EPA
Facts -
13: The EPA develops
and enforces regulations that span many environmental
issues, from greenhouse gases, acid rain reduction to
wetlands restoration.
EPA
Facts -
14: Air Pollution: Air
Pollution is caused by human activities such as driving
automobiles, burning coal, oil, and other fossil fuels
and manufacturing chemicals. The EPA tackles issues and
monitors levels of pollutants such as Acid Rain, Air
Quality, Climate Change, Haze & Visibility, Indoor Air
Quality, Ozone Depletion, Radiation, Smog, Fine
Particles, Toxic Air Pollutants and automobiles and
engines
EPA
Facts -
15: The EPA also investigates and
researches the pollutant effects of mercury, asbestos,
animal waste and animal feeding.
EPA
Facts -
16: The EPA encourages
international cooperation on major issues such as
Climate Change, Conservation, Endangered Species,
Wildlife, and Marine Life.
EPA
Facts -
17: Emergency
Management: The EPA
involvement in Emergency Management includes
environmental disasters caused by oil spills and the
accidental spillage of hazardous substances and advice
on prevention, control, and countermeasures.
EPA
Facts -
18: Land and Cleanup:
The storage of petroleum or hazardous substances are
monitored to meet federal regulations and state
regulations and prevent contamination. The EPA conducts
and supervises investigations and clean-up actions sites
where oil or hazardous chemicals have been spilt.
EPA
Facts -
19: Pesticides: The
EPA is authorized to register pesticides for use in the
United States and conducts research into tolerance
levels and the effects of pesticides on the quality of
food, human health, wildlife and Endangered Species.
EPA
Facts -
20: Toxic Substances:
The EPA gathers health, safety and exposure data and
establishes testing requirements of Toxic Substances.
The agency also regulates the production and
distribution of chemicals and controls human and
environmental exposure to Toxic Substances
EPA
Facts -
21: Waste: The EPA
regulates household, industrial and hazardous wastes
under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and
investigates the hazards of waste disposal. Its goals
are to conserve energy and natural resources by
recycling and recovery. The EPA establishes systems for the
disposal of hazardous waste develops plans to manage
non-hazardous solid waste in landfills. The open dumping
of solid waste is strictly prohibited.
EPA
Facts -
22: Water: The EPA
enforces federal clean water and safe drinking water
laws. The Safe Drinking Water Act is the main federal
law that ensures the quality of drinking water in the
United States. The EPA sets standards for drinking
water quality and oversees its distribution and
investigates discharges of pollutants to streams and
wetlands.
EPA
Facts for kids: Goals, Purpose and Function of the EPA
Facts
about the EPA for kids: The Origins and History of the
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA)
The following fact
sheet continues with facts about the origins and history of the EPA for kids.
EPA
Facts for kids: The Origins and History of the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
EPA
Facts - 1: History:
Industrialization in
America began during the 1800's with new technology
and exciting
Industrial
Revolution Inventions
resulting in the mechanization of industry and transforming
the United States from an agricultural to an industrial society.
EPA
Facts -
2:
Industrialization changed the lives of Americans
forever, bringing about complex social and economic
changes together with environmental degradation.
EPA
Facts - 3: The latter half of the 19th
century ushered in the factory system and the steam locomotive.
The
process of Industrialization led to the
rapid
Urbanization
of
America. Pollution and poor sanitation led to
deadly epidemics in the towns and cities due to untreated waste and raw sewage. Pollution
was caused as horse waste was left in the streets and the heavy,
dense smoke
that belched from the factories polluted the air.
EPA
Facts - 4:
The exploitation and mismanagement
of natural resources was causing great concerns during
the Progressive Movement (1890 - 1920) and
advocates of
Environmentalism
clamored for the protection of natural resources
from destruction or pollution.
EPA
Facts - 5:
The
20th century
witnessed the rise of the automobile.
Between 1909 - 1927 over 15 million
Ford
Model T vehicles had been sold.
EPA
Facts - 6: In 1923 car manufacturers
introduced Leaded gas (gasoline spiked with lead) to enhance engine
performance. Despite warnings that lead was a “serious menace to
public health” auto makers began to introduce leaded gas to
the market and fight mandatory emissions control for their cars.
EPA
Facts - 7: WW2
was brought to a dramatic and terrifying end as the world watched in
horror at the power of the Atomic bomb and the deadly and
devastating effects of nuclear explosions on people and the
environment.
EPA
Facts - 8: Following WW2 the
concept of ecology, which placed a higher value on
esthetics and biology over commerce and efficiency,
began to penetrate the public mind.
EPA
Facts - 9: The 1948 Donora
smog alerted the public to the deadly effects of air
pollution (ozone is a primary ingredient in urban
smog). The 1948 Donora smog was a thick cloud of air
pollution formed above the industrial town of Donora,
Pennsylvania that killed 20 people and and caused
sickness in 6,000 of the town's 14,000 people.
EPA
Facts - 10: The first Federal
legislation addressing air pollution, the Air Pollution
Control Act of 1955 was passed to provide federal
research and technical assistance relating to air
pollution control, but preserved the "primary
responsibilities and rights of the states and local
government in controlling air pollution" Although the
1955 Air Pollution Control Act focused on control,
it contained no provisions for the federal government to
punish polluters.
EPA
Facts - 11: The constant fear
of a nuclear war during the 1950's and into the 1960's
and human damage to the environment fueled the
Hippie Counterculture. The hippies rejected
mainstream American life and values that were dominated
by materialism, consumerism and violence, and turned to
a freer lifestyle, living closer the nature.
EPA
Facts - 12: The new interest
in Environmentalism increased with the 1962 publication
of 'Silent Spring' by Rachel Carson. The environmental
book was about the widespread and indiscriminate
pesticide poisoning of nature and man resulted in a
public outcry for direct government action.
EPA
Facts -
13: President Lyndon
B. Johnson added the environment to his legislative
programs and passed the Clean Air Act of 1963
establishing a federal program within the U.S. Public
Health Service to provide funding for the research and the cleanup of
air pollution.
EPA
Facts -
14: The Air Quality
Act of 1967 was an amendment to the Clean Air Act of
1963. The 1967 amendment put primary responsibility of
addressing air quality in the hands of the state and
local government - not at national level
EPA
Facts -
15: In 1968, Morton
Hilbert, an environmentalist and professor of public
health, together with the U.S. Public Health Service,
organized the Human Ecology Symposium, an environmental
conference for students to hear from scientists about
the effects of environmental degradation on human
health.
EPA
Facts - 16: The highly publicized 1969 Santa
Barbara oil spill, the largest oil spill in United
States waters at the time, resulted in public outrage at
the dramatic environmental effects of the crude spill
during January and February 1969.
EPA
Facts -
17: The Santa Barbara
oil spill was yet another event that sparked the modern
environmental movement in the United States that led to
the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA).
EPA
Facts - 18: The catastrophic Santa Barbara
oil spill, together with the mounting support for the 1969 anti-war
movement, inspired Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin,
Representative Pete McCloskey of California and Morton Hilbert, to
organize a large-scale demonstration on behalf of the environment
which came to be known as "Earth Day".
EPA
Facts - 19: The first "Earth Day" was held
on April 22, 1970 as an environmental teach-in that "brought 20
million Americans out into the spring sunshine for peaceful
demonstrations in favor of environmental reform."
EPA
Facts - 20:
The massive grassroots response to Earth Day finally
helps to put the environment on the political agenda and
the Clean Air Act of 1970 was passed by Congress.
EPA
Facts for kids: The Origins and History of the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Visitors interested in pollution and the environment
might be interested in the following articles:
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
●
Interesting Facts about the Environmental Protection Agency for kids
●
Summary of the EPA in US history
●
The EPA history timeline of important, key
events
● Pollution and
the Environmental Protection Agency for kids
●
Fast, fun facts about the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
●
The EPA fight against pollution
● Pollution and
the
EPA for schools,
homework, kids and children |
