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Focuses on environmental protection in the United States. Criticism of the system of environmental regulation as costly, inflexible, and ineffective; Discussion of the environmental management system (EMS) which is endorsed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for use in the private sector; Topics of EMS standards, ISO 14001 certification, government policy for EMS implementation, adoption of EMS in many sectors through the efforts of private organizations, government mandates and incentives. INSETS: ISO Standards for Environmental Management Systems;Environmental Management Systems in Small Businesses.

Comments on the 1998 report of the Enterprise for the Environment (E4E) program of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) entitled `The Environmental Protection System in Transition.' Weaknesses of the report; How the E4E report offers proposals for reforming the environmental protection system; Brief information on the E4E initiative chaired by EPA Administrator William D. Ruckelshaus.

This article presents news briefs relating to environmental policy as of July 1988. A technique common in mechanical engineering may be used to detect plant damage caused by severe ground-level ozone pollution. Compared with a control group of rye grass, the ozone-exposed plant became more brittle, a possible result of altered amino acid and sugar levels. The brittleness may make it easier for insect pests to attack the leaves. Meanwhile, the treated waste water from a proposed meat-processing plant in Alberta, Canada will create a wetlands area. Treated effluent from both the $50-million Cargill Meat Processing Plant and the town of High River will be carried along a 10-mile pipeline to Frank Lake, where the wetlands will be established. The oversized pipeline will be able to accommodate water from other sources for future enhancement of the wetlands. Finally, a report was released by the U.S. Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, which criticized the federal Superfund program that is aimed at cleaning toxic waste sites. The report examined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's handling of Superfund sites and included 10 case studies as representative examples. Major problems that have rendered the program a failure include inconsistencies in decision making across waste sites; a harmful degree of decentralization leading to minimal direction and oversight from EPA headquarters to regional offices; and the agency's decision to opt for short-term methods of cleanup.

This article deals with issues relating to priority setting at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). When EPA was established in 1970, the most pressing environmental problems in the U.S. were soot and smoke from cards and smokestacks, and raw sewage and chemicals from municipal and industrial waste water. Since 1970, the nation has done much to abate the most visible form of pollution, but there is still much unfinished business. Moreover, problems have been discovered or have risen in importance, such as indoor radon, global climatic change from the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, acid precipitation, and hazardous waste. The complexity and scope of these issues make it particularly significant that EPA apply its finite resources where they will have the greatest effect. Choosing which environmental programs to emphasize should be viewed as an attempt to maximize the health and ecological benefits from the public and private resources that EPA can command. In principle, the environmental agency should analyze its set of investment opportunities in terms of their relative impacts on public health and the environment. A variety of factors combine to make such priority setting difficult. One major difficulty stems from the multiple statutory goals governing the agency. EPA administers nine major statutes, which contain a multitude of goals and prescriptions. INSET: Highlights of How EPA Experts Rank Environmental Risks.

Presents commentary on two major reports on the greenhouse effect. Information from the International Council of Scientific Unions and the United States Department of Energy; Reasons for the growing concern over the issue; Scope of the reports; Need for people with scientific training to be active in the policymaking process; Failure of both reports to follow through on the socioeconomic implications; Rising sea levels and need for this to be labeled a priority issue.

Reports on renewed efforts by U.S. congressional leaders and environmental groups to reauthorize the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, know as Superfund. How Superfund was passed in 1980 to help solve the hazardous waste site problems in the U.S.; Controversy over the size of the fund, responsibility of the cleanup programs, remedies for victims of exposure, and the state share of cleanup costs; Estimated cost to the Environmental Protection Agency.

This section presents news briefs relating to environmental policy as of January 1985. On December 14, 1984, after being informed at field hearings in West Virginia that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not consider the chemical methyl isocyanate to be a hazardous air pollutant, Congressman Henry Waxman (D.-Calif.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Health and the Environment, announced he will introduce legislation to force EPA to regulate the compound. Meanwhile, three significant actions related to acid rain occurred in 1984. On November 8, EPA proposed new restrictions on the use of tall smokestacks to disperse pollution in order to avoid local pollution reduction requirements. Sulfur dioxide from these stacks has been identified as a source of acid precipitation in areas distant from its origin. The rules require industries to reduce emissions by using scrubbers or by burning low-sulfur coal. Finally, the first tidal power generating station in North America opened in 1984 at Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. The plant, which can generate about 20 megawatts of electricity, is a pilot project designed to evaluate the operational characteristics and potential of the turbines for large-scale generation of tidal power in the Bay of Fundy, which has the world's highest tides.

Offers news briefs related to the environment. Formation of the National Institute for the Environment; Handling of criminal environmental cases by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice; Recycling program instituted by Goodwiill; Others.

Questions how clean is clean when speaking of the clean up of Superfund sites. Congressional efforts to define clean; A new definition by the EPA which has some concerned that the cleanups may not be thorough; The two major questions about cleaning up wast sites, one of which is who is paying for it; Pressure on the EPA from industry to relax standards; Argument of industries that tough cleanup standards have been obstacles to cleanup; Lack of federal funding to help; Second strategy of industry to avoid the costs of cleanup; Details of the law.

Reports on the growing environmental enforcement power of the United States' Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as of 1987. Practice of some U.S. companies to pollute and face a fine rather than clean up an effluent or emission, while others even devised elaborate schemes to get rid of wastes illegally; With expanded criminal enforcement powers the EPA is no longer limited to penalizing faceless corporations, now deputized EPA agents can bring individuals such as company presidents to justice; Criminal enforcement of environmental offenses.

Presents an overview of government efforts in the United States to resolve environmental problems in the country in 1982. Enactment of laws on environmental protection; Establishment of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1970; Budget allocation for pollution control in 1981.

Discusses the government data obtained by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which implied that farmers are routinely planting more insect-resistant genetically modified (GM) corn than the allowable capacity of the U.S. federal regulations. Recommendations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regarding GM corns in the U.S.; Violations imposed against GM corn farms in Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska.

Discusses the six major applications of market-based instruments in the United States. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emission trading program; The comparable trading program associated with the phasedown of lead in gasoline; Water quality permit programs; The chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) trading permit program; The sulfur dioxide allowance system for acid rain control; RECLAIM program for improving air quality in Los Angeles, California.

Deals with the failure of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to comply with regulatory laws related to arsenic emissions in the 1980s. Order of a federal District Court in Manhattan that EPA should propose emission standards for arsenic under the Clean Air Act by July 11, 1983; Significance of the need for standard limitation on arsenic emissions in June 1981; Advantages and disadvantages of the statutory scheme for arsenic.

This article is a collection and description of web sites that provide information on sustainable product design. The author highlights the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment and the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. Readers are also referred to web sites that provide a broad view of the sustainable design concept, like the Design for Environment program, run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Also featured are sites run by the Australian Department of Environment and Heritage and the Minnesota Office of Environmental Affairs. Academic sites include the Center for Sustainable Design, Deft University of Technology's Design for Sustainability program, and the Consortium on Green Design and Manufacturing at University of California, Berkeley.

Provides Internet resources on the topic of environmental justice. Definition of environmental justice according to the Web site of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Consideration of Web sites for several governmental and nongovernmental organizations that advocate for environmental justice at national and local levels.

Reports that the Environmental Protection Agency is helping cities clean up brownfields in the hopes of enticing companies back downtown. Brownfields as contaminated, abandoned commercial sites.

Announces that US Representative Sherwood Bochlert (R-N.Y) recently introduced a bill in Congress to raise the Environmental Protection Agency to cabinet-level status. Details of a similar bill introduced by Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio).