ABSTRACT
Environmental protection standards are those that address the protection of the natural environment. Some of the most important ones include the ISO Quality Management family of standards, ISO 9000, and others. The American Society for Quality (ASQ) publishes many such standards that address sampling, conformity assessment, and a wide range of related topics. A standard may be thought of as a multiparty contract that is developed by a process similar to contract negotiation. Most major companies have "internal standards" as well as "external standards". While many standards are hybrids of the types identified in ISO/IEC Guide 2, it is useful to assign a general "type" to many standards. Basic standards are those that have broad applicability across a complete field. Environmental protection standards are those that address the protection of the natural environment. Some are called industrial standards to distinguish them from other standards such as academic standards, generally accepted accounting principles, medical standards, and ethical standards.
