Environmental safety is everyone’s responsibility. In recent years, one aspect of this broad field has come into sharp focus: the safe handling of chemicals. Following an incident in 1984 in Bhopal, India, which killed more than 2,000 people, initiatives have sprung up in the public and private sectors to determine how we maintain the quality of life and still manage chemicals safely. EPA has taken a leading role in building programs to respond to and prevent chemical accidents. EPA’s activities in these areas come together in its Chemical Emergency Preparedness and Prevention Office (CEPPO), organized in 1985.