Assessing the Health Outcomes since the Implementation of Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Air Act Human beings and environment share a relationship that is very codependent. Their relationship is such that positive or negative disturbance to one can directly or indirectly bring about a change in the other. One prime example of this was the overuse of pesticide in the 1960s which tampered with the earth’s natural state; the abusive use of Dichloro Diphenyl Tricoloro (DDT) poisoned the wildlife, water resources, birds etc. Furthermore, in the year 1962, a book titled “Silent Spring,” written by Rachel Carson was able to catch people’s attention as it discussed the damaging effects of such synthetic chemical and what the future
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One of the primary reason that EPA has been effective in achieving such positive outcomes is by the enforcing programs that protect the environment from potential harm. However, sometimes despite tight regulations companies still manage to pollute the air by deceiving the EPA’s regulation. An example of this was this recent Volkswagen scandal whereby the company invented a deceptive device which gave out false emission report. The company had created a software called “defeat device” that was able to detect and change the emission of the car when it was being tested to measure the car’s emission to stay under the emission level allowed in the US. However, it was found that the vehicles actually emitted forty times above the allowed nitrogen oxide level. The fact that Volkswagen was able to get away with this deceit could be seen as a failure in part of the EPA’s Clean Air Act as well since the defect device were developed in 2009 and this “irregularity” was exposed in 2016. The Volkswagen company had broken the Section 203 (a) (3) (b) of the clean air act which does not allow companies to sell, invent, or misuse devices that tampers with EPA’s standard of emission. Another law under the Clean Air Act that Volkswagen had broken was the sale of motor that do not have valid reports. Despite the ineffectiveness in catching such violation of Clean Air Act laws by Volkswagen motors sooner, the EPA did effectively implement it’s Polluter Pays Principle. According to this principle, EPA requires the responsible party to be accountable of the pollution caused due to violation of EPA regulations
One of the primary reason that EPA has been effective in achieving such positive outcomes is by the enforcing programs that protect the environment from potential harm. However, sometimes despite tight regulations companies still manage to pollute the air by deceiving the EPA’s regulation. An example of this was this recent Volkswagen scandal whereby the company invented a deceptive device which gave out false emission report. The company had created a software called “defeat device” that was able to detect and change the emission of the car when it was being tested to measure the car’s emission to stay under the emission level allowed in the US. However, it was found that the vehicles actually emitted forty times above the allowed nitrogen oxide level. The fact that Volkswagen was able to get away with this deceit could be seen as a failure in part of the EPA’s Clean Air Act as well since the defect device were developed in 2009 and this “irregularity” was exposed in 2016. The Volkswagen company had broken the Section 203 (a) (3) (b) of the clean air act which does not allow companies to sell, invent, or misuse devices that tampers with EPA’s standard of emission. Another law under the Clean Air Act that Volkswagen had broken was the sale of motor that do not have valid reports. Despite the ineffectiveness in catching such violation of Clean Air Act laws by Volkswagen motors sooner, the EPA did effectively implement it’s Polluter Pays Principle. According to this principle, EPA requires the responsible party to be accountable of the pollution caused due to violation of EPA regulations