Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T10:19:40.375Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Federal Regulations Create New Challenges in Materials Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2013

Get access

Extract

Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations is a compendium of rules pertaining to environmental protection, written primarily by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). These environmental regulations stand some 19 inches wide on a library shelf and are enclosed by 15 volumes of everchanging information. Each of these volumes contains amendments made to the rules since the last publication of that volume, so the effective dates of new regulations can be difficult to ascertain. Interpreting certain regulations has been difficult for many, the cost of complying with them high, and the eventual impact on the national economy foreseen as gloomy. Few, however, would deny the benefits of a well-planned environmental protection plan and few would sympathize with private corporations that flagrantly ignore regulations, pollute their local environment and, when identified, sustain heavy fines from the EPA.

With problems like acid rain, air and groundwater pollution, global warming, ecological system degradation, municipal, industrial, and nuclear waste (and the federal regulations designed to control them), the need for important materials science research and development is great. These opportunities can be compared in magnitude with those provided by the Manhattan Project, during the 1940s and 1950s, and by the semiconductor revolution in later years. The difference between these past projects and the current situation is the way in which funds are appropriated for the research and how the work is performed. Rather than independently funded research performed by multiple organizations, work on environmental problems is witnessing cooperation among industry, government, academia, and the public, with a consequent savings of research monies. This cooperation is often achieved with a consortium of organizations such as SEMATECH or the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences.

Type
Material Matters
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Farman, I.C., Gardiner, B.G., and Shanklin, J.D., Nature 315 (1985) p. 207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2.Molina, M.J. and Rowland, F.S., Nature 249 (1974) p. 810.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.Nordwall, Bruce D., Aviation Week and Space Technology (February 17, 1992) p. 45.Google Scholar
4.Iman, Ronald L.et al., Evaluation of a No-Clean Soldering Process Designed to Eliminate the Use of Ozone Depleting Chemicals, Sandia National Laboratories, Report No. SAND92-1776, November 1992.Google Scholar
5.Iman, Ronald L., unpublished research.Google Scholar
6.Biviano, Marilyn and Owens, Judith, The Minerals-Related Implications of a Direct Tax on U.S. Primary Lead Production and Primary Lead Imports, U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines Report OFR 60-92.Google Scholar