EPA (definition of)

The EPA, or Environmental Protection Agency, is a federal bureaucracy that is charged with the protection of citizens' health and the quality of air, water and land through regulation of chemicals and chemical waste. The agency was first proposed by the Nixon Administration in the late 1960s, and came into being in December of 1970. Over the past four decades, the agency has been largely responsible for shaping and enforcing U.S. environmental policy.

Although the chief administrator (who as of this writing is Lisa P. Jackson) it technically not part of the President's Cabinet, the position has equivalent rank. The EPA currently employs 18,000 persons on a full-time basis.

The EPA has thirteen separate offices, each responsible for a particular issue or function, and is divided into ten regions, each of which oversees environmental issues for a particular area of the country. Region 1 consists of the New England states, while Region 10 covers the Pacific Northwest. Regions 2 and 9, while charged with New York and New Jersey and Arizona, California and Nevada respectively, also oversee environmental protections in overseas U.S. territories well (i.e., U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Guam).

In addition to the protection of land, air and water resources, the EPA also shapes policy as it relates to endangered species. Asbestos, which has causal links to mesothelioma (like pericardial mesothelioma and peritoneal mesothelioma), is regulated under air quality by the Office of Air and Radiation. View more information about the main causes of mesothelioma.