| The United Nations Environment Programme |
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| The United Nations (UN) formed the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to coordinate UN activities regarding environmental management. The UNEP's mission is to "provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations." Through its programs, the UNEP promotes the sustainable development of the global environment through the use of the world's natural resources in ways that preserve and protect the environment. More... |
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| The Air Quality Index |
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| The Air Quality Index is a 6-point scale with the designations "good", "moderate", "unhealthy for sensitive groups", "unhealthy", "very unhealthy", and "hazardous." More... |
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| Environmental Tobacco Smoke |
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| Although early regulation of the tobacco industry in the United States was geared towards limiting advertising and providing warnings of the dangers of smoking, efforts to protect nonsmokers from the hazards of secondhand smoke, which was widely regarded as a form of air pollution rather than a harmless byproduct of personal behavior choice, slowly began to take root. Although the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) presently has no authority to regulate secondhand smoke, it considers it an important indoor air pollutant and has made it a significant target of its indoor air quality programs. Because the EPA already ranks indoor air pollution in the top five environmental risks to public health, buildings in which smoking is permitted pose all that more of a hazard to the occupants. More... |
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| Tax Relief for Electric and Clean-Fuel Vehicles |
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| The Energy Policy Act of 1992 ("EPAct") was a comprehensive statute designed to reduce the United States' dependence on foreign oil and reduce air pollution. Among other provisions relating to alternative fuel vehicles, EPAct amended the Internal Revenue Code to provide federal tax relief in the form of tax deductions or credits to individual taxpayers who purchased alternative fuel vehicles. More... |
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| Visibility and the EPA's Regional Haze Program |
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| To address the problem of visibility and the related environmental and health effects of visibility impairing pollutants, which affect among others 280 million annual visitors to our national parks and wilderness areas, in 1999 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the Regional Haze Rule (RHR), which represents a concerted effort to improve the visibility in 156 national parks and wilderness areas. Recognizing that haze can be spread over wide areas, the EPA assigns each state, whether or not it contains national parks or wilderness areas, to one of five multi-state regional planning organizations. More... |
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