CEDA

CEDA (Civil Emergency and Defense Agency) is a fictional governmental organization in the Left 4 Dead universe. Materials with the CEDA logo advising Survivors can be found in numerous safe rooms.

Overview
According to descriptive text on Valve's store page for the CEDA Coffee Mug, CEDA has "protected millions of Americans from the terrifying consequences of natural and man made disasters since 1988."

Involvement with containing The Infection
"Safety Checklists" with a "CEDA" logo have been spotted around the now-deserted Fairfield, instructing residents to barricade themselves in their basements and wait for help to arrive.

They also instruct citizens to seal their windows and all other openings with plastic sheeting and duct tape, implying an airborne infection. However, one sign in the safe room at the end of The Subway has been written on by another Survivor, saying "NOT AIRBORNE".

Apparently, the population is extremely dissatisfied with CEDA's safety measures and course of action, as implied by graffiti in the safe rooms of Crash Course and The Parish campaigns, which read as "CEDA BLOWS", as well as various other graffiti found all over the campaigns of Left 4 Dead 2, among the lines of "CEDA sucks".

Superseded by the military


In Left 4 Dead 2, it appears that CEDA has been superseded by the military. A CEDA-run quarantine zone in The Parish has been closed and military-run quarantine zones can be seen throughout New Orleans. Also, CEDA-issued instructions on building a safe house demand that there be no guns in the safe house, but military-issued instructions on making safe houses encourage citizens to be armed.

It is likely that the military stepped in and took over because of CEDA's failures in Fairfield, Newburg and possibly Savannah in containing The Infection.

Boomer Bile
In Left 4 Dead 2 there is a new grenade item called a Bile bomb. It appears to be manufactured by CEDA (since it is dropped by the Ceda hazmat infected). When thrown the glass breaks, releasing the goo and causing common infected to swarm over whatever has been hit with the bomb. If a survivor is hit with this they do not run the risk of being blinded and attracting a horde of common infected to attack them.

''"Give the infected a taste of their own medicine with this CEDA-developed gastrointestinal projectile. Any zombie you soak with this puke grenade will be swarmed by common infected." -''Left 4 Dead 2 item description

In early development the player had the ability to throw the boomer bile at fellow survivors, but the ability was removed.

Trivia

 * CEDA appears to be based off of the real-life FEMA, which has particular resconance in New Orleans, especially in its advice to cover windows with plastic sheeting and duct tape. The name may also be a play on the CDC, an organization involved in preventing infectious disease.
 * The Infection Warning posters may be a reference to the Return of the Living Dead films, where the barrels always have the contact number "555-" but the rest is scratched out, much like the posters. (Note: the telephone prefix "555" is a commonly used fictional telephone prefix)
 * CEDA seems to have, at the very least, more knowledge of the Boomer than the other Special Infected, evident by the fact that they are able to manufacture boomer bile (Presumably extracted from Boomers) and a CEDA chart with information regarding the Boomer can be found in the first chapter of Dead Center.