POLLUTION BLOG

In partnership with Pure Earth Philippines, Valenzuela City launched its first Blood Lead Level (BLL) screening program in September 2024, focusing on children with disabilities. This was the first city-led BLL screening and first screening for a particular sector, children with.

In April 2024, a global Pure Earth study published in Scientific Reports revealed elevated levels of lead in 12% of cosmetic samples. Two traditional kohl eyeliners from Pakistan had the highest lead concentrations— 290,000 ppm and 320,000 ppm (equivalent to.

Pic 1: Shelves with metal cookware in Chennai, Tamil Nadu market Lead contamination in consumer products is a serious health risk, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where it often goes unnoticed. A recent Pure Earth study, which conducted.

Pure Earth is embarking on a new chapter as we announce the leadership transition of our founder, Rich Fuller, who will step down as President and CEO after 25 years of service, effective November 4, 2024. Under Rich’s entrepreneurial spirit.

This has been an unprecedented week for Pure Earth, and all organizations across the globe working to solve the childhood lead poisoning crisis.  Pure Earth Founder, Rich Fuller and Executive Director, Drew McCartor were in attendance September 23rd at the.

Note from the author: This blog summarises my PhD research at the University of Manchester which investigates the environmental impacts of off-grid solar technologies in sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on Malawi as a case study and collecting novel data describing toxic.

Pure Earth's Evolution Over 25 Years: A Q&A with Executive Director Drew McCartor  To commemorate our efforts to solve pollution over 25 years, we sat down with Executive Director Drew McCartor to hear about Pure Earth’s journey from a small.

Pure Earth Celebrates Twenty-Five Years of Solving Pollution Join us in taking a look at where we’ve been, and where we’re headed A lot has changed since Australian environmental engineer Richard Fuller founded Pure Earth in 1999, then called Blacksmith.

Pure Earth was invited to present on our work addressing lead exposure at the 77th World Health Assembly in Geneva this week. The World Health Assembly (WHA) brings together delegates from all 194 member states of the World Health Organization.

Over the past year, Pure Earth has intensified its efforts to build awareness with governments, in particular the U.S. Government, about the scale and impact of global lead poisoning. These efforts, building on Pure Earth’s lead poisoning research, expertise and.

In this spotlight, Agustín Gama, Pure Earth’s new Country Director for Mexico, shares an update on the work of our team in Mexico.  Visit the Pure Earth Mexico page to learn more. For Spanish-language access, visit the project website barroaprobado.org.

In this spotlight, Lizeth Olaya Zambrano, Pure Earth’s new Country Director for Colombia, shares an update on the work of our team in Colombia. Their recent accomplishments include winning one of the top prizes in a global competition to conserve.

To learn more about the issue, access resources and watch a recording of our EARTH DAY Dialogue "Heavy Metals In Our Food: Understanding Risks and Moving Towards Solutions," with experts from Pure Earth, Consumer Reports, the NYC Department of Health.

In 2021, Pure Earth launched an ambitious project to analyze the lead (Pb) content in thousands of consumer products in markets across 25 low- and middle-income countries. This project, the Rapid Market Screening (RMS),  is the first analysis of its.

Below is our letter to the editor published in Vermont's Brattleboro Reformer on Dec. 13, and in the Bennington Banner on Dec. 14, 2022. Dear Editor: We would like to publicly thank Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy for his long-standing and.

Globally, one in three children –up to 800 million–have blood lead levels that are higher than deemed safe by the World Health Organization. Despite clear evidence of harm, many countries do not have sufficient capacity to monitor or regulate lead.

Recent high profile news reports, such NBC's "Paradise Lost: The weight of gold," are bringing fresh attention to the problem of mercury pollution and deforestation. Our latest story from the field shows the progress we are making in researching and.

The Pure Earth Club is a school club comprised of students who are being taught and nurtured to love their environment and to protect it through the reduction of pollution, not only by words but by action. They are supervised.

Five years ago, the landmark report from the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health brought the issue of pollution to the world’s attention. For the first time, the report quantified the true toll of pollution on the human population. Approximately.

  The new report, "Pollution and health: a progress update," recently published in the Lancet Planetary Health journal, is capturing the world's attention with its sobering look at the state of the global pollution crisis. New data in the report updates findings from.

In 2019, the Republic of Georgia faced a childhood lead poisoning crisis.  A national survey had revealed that 41% of children ages 2-7 in the country had blood lead levels at or above 5 μg/dL (the level at which the.

In the Peruvian Amazon, Pure Earth is working to train artisanal miners in mercury-free techniques and in reforestation to restore areas of the rainforest damaged by mining. We're doing all this with the help of a key partner--the jewelry industry,.

In 2021, Pure Earth worked with one of the leading universities in Indonesia to recruit young graduates for the Toxic Sites Identification Program (TSIP), which trains pollution investigators around the world to identify, assess and document contaminated sites in their.

In a remote mining corridor in Peru, a mining association called AMATAF is on a mission to change the face of gold mining in the Amazon. [caption id="attachment_19667" align="alignnone" width="600"] Land degraded by gold mining can be seen in the.

Pure Earth reached several milestones in 2021, including critical recognition as the most effective organization working today to solve the global childhood lead poisoning crisis! We are especially proud of this as it reflects the hard work put in by the.

Take a look at what’s in your kitchen right now. Research has shown that a wide array of products, from baby food to spices, tuna and frozen pizzas, even those from well-known brands and organic labels, contain toxic heavy metals.

Each October, the World Health Organization (WHO) puts the focus on toxic lead during International Lead Poisoning and Prevention Week (ILPPW). This year, Pure Earth offices around the world participated in the global campaign by organizing a series of events.

Amazing things can happen when we work together as a global alliance.  The agenda for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that was just adopted, entitled "Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," reflects input from our multi-year campaign to ensure that.

In 2020, Pure Earth investigators helped to unravel the mystery of widespread lead poisoning in Georgian children. They traced the problem to contaminated spices found during home investigations. The source of the poisoning was lead chromate, a dye that was.

There are many different ways to use the web besides a mouse and a pair of eyes. Users navigate for example with a keyboard only or with their voice. All the functionality, including menus, links and forms should work using.

This April, under the searing sun, over 200 volunteers from HSBC Philippines and the local community showed up to help Pure Earth take action against river pollution. Together, the group planted over 100 Camachileand and Talisay trees along the shoreline of Laguna Lake,.

When Pure Earth visited Maragogipinho, a village in the town of Aratuípe in Brazil, in 2017 as part of the Toxic Sites Identification Program (TSIP), the team found lead concentrations in the soil as high as 44,500 ppm (the EPA level.

Note from the field by Angela Bernhardt, Pure Earth Communications Director  The breast milk of Tajik mothers contain a mean concentration of DDT that is 4 times higher than permissible levels, according to the World Health Organization in Tajikistan. This is not.

This blog post is from Indigo Golub, a communications intern at Pure Earth. She is currently undergoing a bachelors degree in History, Law, and Society at the American University of Paris. Meet Dexter. The two-year-old, seen here with his mom,.

This post is by Madeline Walker, Pure Earth Communications Intern. Madeline attends undergraduate college at SUNY Geneseo, where she will receive a dual degree in Political Science & Communication. One day, she hopes to pursue a career in the fields.

https://youtu.be/V6IxvUExAlQ Pure Earth's toxic site investigators can be found the world over. Their mission? To walk the earth in order to find, map and assess polluted sites in low and middle-income countries, where residents are being poisoned where they live. The.

This post is by Charlie Espinosa, Pure Earth intern for Latin America. A 2014 study conducted by Universidad Naciónal de Colombia revealed high lead levels in all students attending La Bonga Elementary School. Located in Malambo, Colombia, the school sits in.

Pure Earth President Richard Fuller, an Aussie based in New York, was recently recognized with the prestigious Order of Australia Medal for his service to conservation and the environment. “...my hope is that this recognition brings more attention to the global.

A standing ovation. That is what Gina McCarthy, former US EPA administrator, received at the Pure Earth benefit on Earth Day in New York City. McCarthy was a special guest at the benefit focused on "Pollution Solutions," showcasing the cleanup.

U.S. audiences might know actress and model Taliana Vargas from her key role in season three of Netflix's Narcos.  But away from the spotlight, Vargas is a philanthropist at heart. In Colombia, Vargas is using her star power to help.

Watch a video of the project above, or click here. This post is from Charles Espinosa, an intern working with our Latin America program team. Charlie is pursuing a master's degree in Latin American studies at Columbia University, with a.

[caption id="attachment_4283" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Children in Indonesia play on lead smelting dump site in the middle of their village.[/caption] An important new paper from Dr. Bruce Lanphear, a member of the Pure Earth Leadership Council, and a Commissioner on The Lancet Commission on.

[caption id="attachment_6163" align="aligncenter" width="640"] From left to right: Tofik Azizov, Ministry of Agriculture; Petr Sharov, Pure Earth; Technical Advisor Nicholas Albergo; Rovshan Abbasov, Pure Earth; Khatuna Akhalaya, Project Consultant.[/caption] If you asked any authority on pollution about Azerbaijan, the name.

  (Read the story in Spanish on the Barro Aprobado site) Recently, a team representing a group of ten artisans from Michoacán in Mexico traveled to New York to show their lead-free pottery at NY Now, one of the largest trades.

[caption id="attachment_6052" align="aligncenter" width="1000"] Pure Earth President Richard Fuller captures the attention of decision-makers gathered at Davos.[/caption] Pure Earth President Richard Fuller was at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week talking about one of the most effective ways.

  [caption id="attachment_6036" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The World Bank event was filled to capacity.[/caption] Pollution is one global crisis that can be solved, but it will take commitment, cooperation, and funding.  That was the takeaway from a January 11th discussion in Washington, D.C..

HSBC has launched a unique "Adopt A Potter" program in support of Pure Earth's work to reduce lead poisoning from the widespread use of traditional leaded pottery in Mexico. Under the program, corporate volunteers visit artisans who have gone lead-free.

Congratulations Doña Rosario! The talented potter, who is part of the Pure Earth Barro Aprobado program, was awarded 1st place in the national ceramic prize competition that aims to promote the preservation of the traditional techniques and designs of Mexican pottery..

Thank you Dev! Academy Award nominee Dev Patel has selected Pure Earth as his charity of choice for the Mandarin Oriental’s global “He’s a Fan/She’s a Fan” campaign. The hotel group will donate $10,000 to support our work in some.

The new report from The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health, published on Oct. 19, pinpoints pollution as the cause of 1 in 6 deaths worldwide, with children and the poor being the most vulnerable. We cannot afford the health and economic impacts. .

Earlier this year, Pure Earth launched an ambitious project in Peru, supported by Brilliant Earth, a global leader in ethically sourced fine jewelry.  The goal: to transform the Chichiqueros artisanal gold mining community into a mercury-free model.  The Chichiqueros work in an area.

  This post is from Indira Zhakipova, Pure Earth's coordinator in Kyrgyzstan The village of Naiman is inhabited by 1,800 people, and is located in the Nookat district of the Osh region of Kyrgyzstan, 70 km from the regional center.

Photo by Sumaiya Ahmed, Creative Commons https://www.flickr.com/photos/snippets/1120575294/ The recent Hurricanes (Harvey in Texas, Irma in Florida and the Caribbean) with their extensive floods have raised questions of pollution and other chemical contamination. This is an important public health issue that.

There are over 200 lakes in the Absheron Peninsular in Azerbaijan, located near the capital of Baku. For years, industrial and household wastewater has been dumped into these waters--an estimated 41.5 million cubic meters annually! This includes discharges from many of.

Remember Mrs. Mungun? She was the "gold ninja" who learned to go mercury-free at a Pure Earth training workshop so she could provide a better life for her two children. We met Mrs. Mungun again recently and we're delighted to report that she's.

Update: A Pure Earth team is currently at COP1, joining representatives from around the globe who have come together to help make mercury history. Our team is attending daily sessions as well as meetings to discuss guidance on the management.

This post comes from Rovshan Abbasov, Pure Earth’s country coordinator in Azerbaijan. Rovshan shares his story about pollution in Azerbaijan, and a childhood caught between clean and polluted. (WATCH VIDEO BELOW) Dr. Rovshan Abbasov, Pure Earth's coordinator in Azerbaijan, holding a tomato.

  This post is from Andrew McCartor, Pure Earth's Regional Director for South Asia. A procession on the streets of Bihar, India. Finding and confirming pollution can be difficult because polluters don't advertise their activities, and many toxic pollutants are invisible and.

  Earlier this year, Pure Earth launched an ambitious project supported by Brilliant Earth, a global leader in ethically sourced fine jewelry.  The goal: to transform the Chichiqueros artisanal gold mining community into a mercury-free model.  The Chichiqueros work in an area in.

Jack measuring toxic soil with Olympus XRF, Photo by Larry C. Price Q & A with Dr. Jack Caravanos, Pure Earth’s Director of Research Jack traveled to Kabwe, Zambia, last month with The Guardian environment editor Damian Carrington and Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist.

  What is it like to be a pollution fighter for Pure Earth? We followed Lara Crampe (above), Pure Earth's Regional Director for Southeast Asia, during a recent week-long trip to the Philippines, where she met with local partners, visited.

Umed and the Pure Earth remediation team in Tajikistan In the past year, Pure Earth's team in Tajikistan has been measuring vast regions, where dozens of decrepit pesticide warehouses from the Soviet era have been leaking into the surrounding soil and water. When.

Mother and child in Senegal We see them all the time when we work in polluted hotspots where, really, no one should be living. We see them going about their daily, often back-breaking work, many times with children in tow. These.

Pure Earth regional director for Africa, Judith St. Fort, and senior program officer, Russell Dowling, recently returned to Senegal to help train local toxic site investigators as part of the Toxic Sites Identification Program (TSIP). Judith and Russell brought with them dozens.

Thank you to all you "headbangers," "lead singers" and "groupies," and everyone who had a "front row seat" or "backstage pass" at our Heavy Metal Benefit Bash. You came, you dined, learned more about toxic heavy metals, and some of you.

Mercury-free gold is in Vogue! In Why Mercury-Free Gold Is the Future of Sustainable Jewelry, Vogue magazine reported on Pure Earth's collaboration with superstar model Molly Bair, and 21 leading designers to curate a special collection of jewelry crafted using recycled, Fairtrade, or.

"Women are usually in charge of the family's health but are often excluded from training and other opportunities," says Budi Susilorini, Pure Earth's country director for Indonesia. Budi was recently invited to take part in a discussion organized by NGO BaliFokus.

Testing a playground for toxins in Zambia. For more than a decade now, Pure Earth has been training and sending investigators out across the world's worst polluted places to identify, assess and map contaminated sites that pose a health risk to.

Pollution is one global problem that can be solved. We have solutions. #WeCanFightPollution. Here are some highlights of our work around the world over the past 12 months. Thanks to our supporters, we are making an impact. AFRICA Toxic-free homes for.

  This post comes to you from Alfonso Rodríguez, Pure Earth's new country director in Colombia.  The Pure Earth team at a toxic site visit in Colombia: (l to r) Daniel Estrada, Alfonso Rodríguez, John Keith Pure Earth has expanded its Toxic.

A mountain of success! Pure Earth partner GreenAd's Bennett Akuffo is shown here standing on a pile of cleanly processed plastic cable casings in Agbogbloshie, Ghana.  This is what would have been burnt, releasing polluting toxic fumes, if local recyclers.

After a quick lesson at Pure Earth's office, Molly shows off her skills with the XRF--a handheld X-ray fluorescent analyzer that can identify toxic particles in soil in about 30 seconds! #FightPollution with Molly Bair When you see model Molly.

This post comes from Alena Temnikova, Pure Earth's regional coordinator in Kyrgyzstan.  The red wall of the building is made from lead-contaminated sand taken from the mine tailings. When lead and zinc ore mining began in the 1950s, the first workers lived.

Pure Earth's country director in Indonesia, Budi Susilorini, recently spent a month in the New York office, meeting with colleagues, exchanging ideas and sharing experiences. We caught up with her to learn more about what motivates her.  Budi is a key.

  This post is from Lara Crampe, Pure Earth's regional director for Southeast Asia.  She is currently in Zambia working with the team on the second phase of Pure Earth’s remediation project in the Chowa neighborhood of Kabwe. This month our.

The two lists you see above show the names of people in the village who contributed towards the construction of paved roads that now criss-cross the rural community of Dong Mai in Vietnam. On our recent visit, we saw lists.

[caption id="attachment_4960" align="aligncenter" width="879"] A view of the district of Laberinto from the Inambari River. Over years of constant shifting, the river has transformed the area into a complicated landscape.[/caption] Located about an hour from the city of Puerto Maldonado,.

A few days ago, we visited a school, playground and homes in one neighborhood in Jakarta to test for toxic lead. Children can get poisoned when they ingest lead flakes or lead dust that comes off of brightly painted playground.

Help us make a difference in Agbogbloshie and other polluted places. Donate now to support the cleanup of polluted communities worldwide. “Kona Ne Bad” or “Burning Is Bad” – that was the message splashed across tee-shirts and posters, and shouted out through.

This post is from Pure Earth summer intern Taylor Carroll (pictured above), an environmental studies major in her senior year at Lehigh University. Recently, over 1,000 delegates from all over the world met at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

This post is from Pure Earth summer intern Taylor Carroll, an environmental studies major in her senior year at Lehigh University. Some may be surprised to hear that the Environmental Protection Agency is primarily a public health agency, but EPA.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="203"] Dr. Amalia Laborde[/caption] [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="109"] Dr. Lilian Corra[/caption] The World Health Organization (WHO) has just released a new series of children's environmental health training modules that were prepared by experts around the world, including.

Fighting pollution does not just mean cleaning up toxic sites.  It also involves a lot of behind-the-scenes work that might not make the news, such as the painstaking task of identifying, mapping, and assessing contaminated hotspots around the world. This was what.

Dirty Talk With A View  For our latest Dirty Talk (Pure Earth's awareness-raising lunchtime series), we brought experts to the New York Times building to talk about pollution in Latin America. The event attracted a full house and boasted some of the best.

This post is from Pure Earth summer intern Sarah Baer, a youth philanthropy leader in her junior year at the University of Pennsylvania. In the remote reaches of Mongolia, Pure Earth’s project team has put together a teaching van to educate miners on.

What a difference a year makes. Last year, Pure Earth embarked on our first cleanup project in Azerbaijan---at a toxic beach along the Caspian sea in Sumgayit---in a region we had designated as one of the “World’s Worst Polluted Places.” Today,.

The Pure Earth family is sad to learn of the sudden death of Dmitriy Tereshkevich, our country director in Kazakhstan. He was just 33. His passing is a shock and a tremendous loss to everyone at Pure Earth worldwide, and to the.

Program ”Penguatan Sistem Kesehatan untuk Mengurangi Paparan Timbel" di Indonesia Bagi organisasi nirlaba, kolaborasi sangat penting dalam mencapai tujuan organisasi dan menciptakan dampak positif bagi masyarakat. Selain itu, sinergi dapat membuat upaya gabungan bisa mencapai hasil yang lebih baik. Pure.

“The Strengthening Health System to Reduce Lead Exposure” Program in Indonesia For non-profit organizations, collaboration is crucial in reaching organizational goals and creating a positive impact on the communities. In addition, synergy can make combined efforts accomplish more. Pure Earth.

This week's post is from Angela Bernhardt, Executive Director of Communications for Pure Earth. After two and a half years in our New York headquarters, I took my first trip to the field with our Southeast Asia coordinator, Lara Crampe..

The Pure Earth program and management team recently concluded a three-day retreat at a donated vacation home in coastal Maine. There was much to plan as Pure Earth received a new grant and a renewal from a previous funder. In addition, our.

This is Mrs. Mungun (not her real name), a single mother with two children living in Central Mongolia.  When times got tough for her, she became a "gold ninja" to feed her children. About 20% of the rural Mongolian workforce are "gold.

Meet Filipino gold miners Leoncio Na-Oy (pictured below, right) and Rudy Onos. Over the past few years, Pure Earth has been working with Leoncio and Rudy to test and teach a century-old, traditional method of mercury-free gold mining Leoncio rediscovered in his.

[caption id="attachment_16027" align="alignnone" width="300"] Actor Shiloh Fernandez with Caroline Dweck of Stephen Dweck.[/caption] Do you know where the gold in your jewelry comes from? Following the success of our recent Pure Earth Pure Gold Benefit Bash, we think many more people.

[caption id="attachment_16042" align="alignnone" width="300"] Photo: Larry C. Price[/caption] Do you know where the gold in your jewelry and electronics come from? About 10% to 25% of the world’s total gold supply comes from artisanal gold mining, the leading source of.

[caption id="attachment_16044" align="alignnone" width="300"] Gold fish shaped vessel from the Oxus Treasure by Nickmard Khoey, CC, via Flickr[/caption] How is the jewelry you wear and the iPhone you use connected with contaminated fish you may find on your plate? The.

The latest WHO report released this week --  Preventing disease through healthy environments: a global assessment of the burden of disease from environmental risks” -- is key in helping the world understand that the leading global public health threat has shifted.

Over the past year, we have started to finally see a shift connecting the silos that have kept efforts on the environment, health and development in separate disciplines. The catalyst for much of this progress has come from the creation.

This man is "cooking" lead by the side of a busy road. This is a fairly common scene in Hajipur, home to many of the 40 informal and unregulated recyclers of used lead-acid batteries (ULAB) in Bihar, India. In this densely.

What does Flint, Michigan, and Kabwe, Zambia, have in common?  The answer is lead poisoning. Recently, NPR's Goats and Soda program spoke with Pure Earth President Richard Fuller to get his take on the lead-contaminated water supply in Flint and how.

[caption id="attachment_16047" align="alignnone" width="300"] Photo by Alex Proimos (Lake Titicaca) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] A milestone has been reached in the long struggle to clean up the famed Lake Titicaca. Bolivia and Peru have agreed to provide more than.

Of the many cleanups we conducted in 2015, our work in Kabwe, Zambia, was one of the highlights. Last year, thanks to private donations from supporters, Pure Earth’s team was able to return to Kabwe to start cleaning up one of the “World’s.

AN URGENT CALL IN THE NIGHT Earlier this year, Sandra Gualtero, Pure Earth's regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, received a late-night email labelled “URGENT.” It was from a nurse in Mexico who had just discovered a newborn baby with.

[caption id="attachment_3829" align="alignnone" width="559"] The man with Joe Hayes in Chowa[/caption] Joe Hayes, a hydrogeologist from the US, is a volunteer member of Pure Earth’s technical advisory board. Joe just returned from Kabwe, Zambia where he is helping to manage the.

From the WHO Fact Sheet on Mercury and Health Key facts Mercury is a naturally occurring element that is found in air, water and soil. Exposure to mercury – even small amounts – may cause serious health problems, and is.

“I am impressed with what has been done... and this comes as a relief not only to the people of Chowa, but the entire Kabwe population. We believe that when this project is completed, more lives will be safeguarded."  --.

Almost every single child in Chowa is suffering from lead poisoning. Nearly all of Chowa's children were found to have blood lead levels that are ten to 20 times the CDC recommended level, which can be fatal. The source of the toxin?  A group.

[Read a version of this story in Spanish.] At this year's Festival Internacional Cervantino, one of the most important arts and cultural events in Latin America, a dinner designed to showcase the culinary culture of Morelos state became a milestone in the fight against.

On Oct 1, a panel of world leaders and key experts in the fields of pollution management, environmental health and sustainable development gathered in Geneva to launch the Global Commission on Pollution, Health and Development. Like the Stern Review, which brought.

A new report - The New Top Six Toxic Threats: A Priority List For Remediation - has been released by Pure Earth and Green Cross Switzerland. It is the tenth report in the World's Worst Pollution Problems series that over the years has served.

The best way to help communities clean up toxic sites is to advise and encourage, say Andrew McCartor, Bret Ericson and Sandra Gualtero. In the September issue of TCE magazine (The Chemical Engineer), the three Pure Earth program directors wrote about their.

This post is from one of our resourceful communications summer interns Alex Rivlin, who spotted this story and realized the connection to the work we do. How polluted does water have to be to become flammable? Bellandur Lake is just.

Gold miners are revered here... This statue, which takes pride of place in the center of a gold mining town in Peru, speaks volumes about the relationship between gold and many locals. Artisanal and small-scale gold mining is a traditional.

  “… while most everyone has heard about “going green,” few are aware of the more dire and sinister “brown” pollution — places where man-made toxic pollutants have taken root and spread.” - from "The Brown Agenda," by Richard Fuller.

[caption id="attachment_16120" align="alignnone" width="300"] Instant Noodles by kattebelletje[/caption] Earlier this month, there was a lead poisoning scare involving a brand of instant noodles manufactured in India. The company promptly pulled the product and samples were sent to the Maharashtra Food.

While much of the conversation about the Pope's encyclical has been about climate change, a quick look reveals that pollution is a big part of that equation. And he spotlights some of the key issues of the problem, including how pollution.

  UPDATE: June 2015 It has been eight months since Pure Earth opened the e-waste recycling center with automated wire-stripping units. We have been assessing what is working and what is not, as we enter the next phase of the project..

Read the story on Medium. In Manado, at the picturesque tip of North Sulewesi in remote Indonesia, local artisanal gold miners may have found, in their backyards, the key to reducing mercury emissions.  Across Indonesia, you can see roofs of houses.

Read the story on Medium. This summer, when families return to stake out their spot in the sun along the coast of the Caspian sea in Sumgayit, Azerbaijan, there will be one crucial difference. The beach will no longer be toxic, and.

 "At the hospital, he looked fine but behaved like he was losing his mind... In the evening of the same day, his fever became severe. He was restless. He later started jerking seriously with his eyes turning, and that was how.

Calling all researchers. Are you looking to improve your skills in writing papers for peer-reviewed scientific journals? Do you have a draft of a scientific paper you are preparing for publication? Are you a citizen of, and is your research related.

Mexico's 500-year old tradition of using toxic lead-glazes in pottery is a problem that continues to plague residents to this day. In our paper "Blood Lead Levels in Mexico and Pediatric Burden of Disease Implications,” published in the Annals of Global.

Usher, No Doubt, Mary J. Blige, Fall Out Boy, Common, Train, My Morning Jacket and others rallied an estimated 250,000 people on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on April 18 in a day-long Earth Day concert organized by the.

  Blacksmith Institute has changed its name to Pure Earth.  Our work and commitment remain the same. "... in the end, it was Dev Patel, the brilliant actor who played the hero of Slumdog Millionaire, who pushed us to choose Pure Earth..

  What did we do in 2014? We are glad to report that it was a great year of progress in the fight against toxic pollution. Here's why: Out In The Global Field - Asia, Africa, Central Asia/Eastern Europe, Latin.

  Over the past few years, Blacksmith Institute for a Pure Earth has embarked on a broad effort to expand research and understanding about the issue of toxic pollution, especially its damaging impact in low and middle-income countries, where pollution is the.

[caption id="attachment_16171" align="alignnone" width="225"] Richard Fuller, Blacksmith Institute for a Pure Earth President with a Mexican potter[/caption] Our effort to expand research and understanding about toxic pollution continues this month with three papers published in the prestigious Annals of Global Health, formerly.

In India, Pure Earth has been working closely with local officials, industry and other stakeholders on the widely-documented problem of toxic pollution in the country.  In fact the government is planning on prioritizing the top ten worst polluted sites in the country for cleanup,.

Facts About Lead Poisoning and Pollution: There is no known safe level of lead exposure. The CDC lowered the level of concern from 10 to 5 µg/dL (micrograms /deciliter) as the point at which to trigger public health actions. In the.

Beyond Akhtala, the site of our very first cleanup project in Armenia (read more in Armenia's Toxic 10th-Century Monastery), our team came across various other polluted sites including a school, which apparently had been used as an informal dumping ground by a.

The latest issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), the main resource for key public health information and recommendations from the CDC, features field notes from our July trip to Kabwe, where we found devastating levels of lead poisoning.

The modern world has finally caught up with Akhtala, a historic town with a 10th-century monastery and church in Armenia. Years of mining and metals processing have provided jobs to the community, but at a grave cost.  The grounds of the historic.

This guest post is from Ben Barber, who visited Kabwe with the Blacksmith for a Pure Earth team in July. We arrived last July in one of the world’s most toxic hotspots -- Kabwe, a city of about 200,000 just.

"Fuller and Pure Earth (Blacksmith) have amassed an impressive record of success. But nothing could have prepared them for a situation like the decrepit Soviet dynamite* factory."  [*Note:  We want to clarify an error in the article.  It was not.

  When an airliner disappears into the Indian ocean and hundreds of people are assumed dead, it’s huge news and millions are spent to find it and understand what went wrong. But in Zamfara, Nigeria, in 2010, over 200 children.

[caption id="attachment_3044" align="alignnone" width="640"] The media turned out in force to help us launch "Barro Aprobado" and spread awareness about lead-free pottery in Mexico.[/caption] Across Mexico every day, millions of meals served in homes and restaurants come with an extra,.

http://youtu.be/PBGDERL3t4o Every day, trucks full of used lead-acid batteries from cars, motorbikes and other vehicles are brought in from across Vietnam to the rural village of Dong Mai in the agricultural heartland of Vietnam. Dong Mai is one of thousands of toxic "craft".

[caption id="attachment_16187" align="alignnone" width="300"] This soccer field used to be highly contaminated with toxic lead. Children were being poisoned everyday.[/caption] In Cinangka, Indonesia, a playground near the primary school was so toxic that parts of the field had lead levels.

Up to 20% of Mexicans have elevated blood level levels. This is from the use of traditional Mexican pottery---the colorful plates, pots and other wares that you see in almost every home and restaurant in the country. Traditional Mexican pottery has been.

http://youtu.be/V7ugPCl-oq4 UPDATE:  Our voices are being heard at the U.N.  Our call to #SpotlightPollution in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is making a difference. We've received 26 letters of support from governments, agencies, NGOs & universities. As a result, the zero draft.

[caption id="attachment_20195" align="alignnone" width="650"] Seynabou and her grandson in November 2021.[/caption] Seynabou had ten children, but lost five of them.  One by one, each of her five youngest children fell ill with the same symptoms — seizures and convulsions. One by one,.

Just how hard is it to clean up a toxic polluted site sitting on top of a "bomb," at a secret site? This month's TCE magazine features the story behind our work dealing with one of the most dangerous examples.

[caption id="attachment_15288" align="alignnone" width="300"] Dev Patel with Freida Pinto at the inaugural PURE EARTH benefit gala in NYC on April 26, 2014.[/caption] Happy Birthday Dev Patel! Just three days after Patel's 24th birthday on April 23, the young actor/activist helped.

What does a Pure Earth look like to you? This is what it looks like to Susan Sarandon, Anne Hathaway, Yoko Ono, Faith Ringgold and our other friends and supporters. PURE EARTH extends our deepest appreciation to the artists and celebrities.

It is a small but powerful tool.  The handheld XRF (X-ray fluorescence) analyzer can identify toxic particles in soil in about 30 seconds, allowing remediation crews to quickly locate and determine the extent of any contamination, and potentially begin life-saving cleanup without.

Think you know pollution? Here are some facts about toxic pollution that might surprise you. Pollution is one of the biggest global threats. Toxic pollution from contaminated sites affects over 200 million people worldwide, with tens of thousands poisoned each year..

This is the second post from Sarita Gupta, Blacksmith’s India director, from her recent trip visiting lead smelters in India. I work for Blacksmith Institute, which cleans up toxic pollution around the world. I never imagined sitting in my New.

This week’s post comes from Andrew McCartor, Blacksmith’s program director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, who was recently in Mongolia.   There is no preparing for the Mongolian winter. When I stepped onto the tarmac in the capital city.

  Sarita Gupta, Blacksmith's India director, contributes this post from India.       The fabled land of Rajasthan is known, among other things, for its vividly colored clothing. So when the opportunity came to travel for work to Jaipur, I.

This report is from Conrad Meyer, chair of Blacksmith's board of directors, who is currently in India with Blacksmith. Last week, we traveled to India to meet with the senior management of Gravita, an environmentally friendly recycler of used lead.

This week's post comes from Andrew McCartor, Blacksmith’s program director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, who is currently in Tajikistan. The small, mountainous country of Tajikistan is a former Soviet republic that borders Afghanistan to the south and China.

Over 40% of the world's stockpiles of obsolete pesticides, around 200,000 tons, are estimated to be still present in the former Soviet Union Republics including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Moldova and Russian Federation. Blacksmith has been invited to join.

Livelihood Training For Women Uncovering Senegal's Invisible Pollution Problem Last year, Blacksmith returned to Senegal to conduct livelihood training for women so that they will not have to go back to the deadly job of backyard battery recycling in order.

Filipino Miners in Bolivia Roadmap For Cleanup More Pilot Projects on the Way Blacksmith brought Filipino gold miners to Latin America in 2013 to test and teach the Benguet method, (sometimes known as the "borax method") to artisanal miners in Bolivia. If successful,.

Stopping A Ticking Time Bomb In The Ukraine Keeping Radiation Out of Schools In Kyrgyzstan Groundbreaking Work In Armenia Blacksmith identified and assessed 128 contaminated sites in the region, bringing the total number of polluted communities documented in Eastern Europe and.

Prioritizing Sites For Cleanup in India Engaging the Chinese Public Vietnam's Toxic Craft Villages Exciting things are happening in India. Blacksmith's data on over 400 polluted sites has been integrated into a larger list commissioned by the government. This is the.

Increased Focus on Research Training Local Researchers Research Grants Journal of Health and Pollution Expands This year saw the release of a number of key reports, including: A roadmap for pollution cleanup across Latin America The Poisoned Poor, a paper that spells out, for the first.

We began 2014 with a message to the U.N., urging action on toxic pollution at the Seventh Session of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). "The SDGs will set the post-2015 global development agenda," says Rachael Vinyard, Director.

A new report provides a roadmap that can be used to accelerate pollution cleanup in Latin America.  With input from experts from seven Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay) and the U.S., the report examines environmental.

The conversation about pollution just got louder. Since 2006, Blacksmith’s yearly reports have been instrumental in increasing public understanding of the health impacts posed by toxic pollution, and in some cases, have compelled cleanup work at pollution hotspots. This latest.

A new report released this November updates the top ten list of world's worst polluted places previously identified in 2006 and 2007, removing sites that have made progress, and adding new sites. "Top Ten Toxic Threats in 2013: Cleanup, Progress and Ongoing Challenges" from.

Earlier this month, Pure Earth was with the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution (GAHP) in Minamata, Japan, to witness the landmark signing of the first international treaty to curb mercury pollution, and to help countries abide by the agreement. To.

Next month, Blacksmith returns to Senegal to provide livelihood training to women so that they will not have to go back to the dangerous job of backyard battery recycling--the activity that triggered the tragic lead poisoning outbreak in 2008 that killed 32 children in Thiaroye.

How do we begin to solve life-threatening problems facing the world's poisoned poor? Some of the world's leading voices came together for a seminar in Brussels this October to discuss the issue. The Global Alliance on Health and Pollution (GAHP) joined.

Who does toxic pollution affect the most? A global alliance has come together to issue the first comprehensive report of pollution's impact on this invisible demographic -- the poisoned poor. "The world’s poorest people routinely face the highest risk of exposure to hazardous chemicals due to their occupations,.

In 1991, the daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Mexico was found to have high lead levels in her blood. It launched an outcry on both sides of the border against the use of toxic lead glazes in Mexican pottery,.

The Global Alliance on Health and Pollution (GAHP) has released a technical guide focused on the containment of lead, one of the world's worst pollutants. It is the first in a planned series of guides on best practices in global.

Updated 2019 Child gold miners in Indonesia It has been over 50 years since the first sign of mass mercury poisoning emerged in Minamata, Japan. Cats in the village started staggering and tilting, doing a strange "dancing cat fever." Then.

Worker in protective gear with a one-ton chunk of lead; an ingot that will now be sold. RSR battery recycling plant in Indianapolis After visiting so many terrible, appalling, toxic backyard battery recyclers in the developing world, we thought we.

China is currently facing a wave of dissatisfaction over the state of pollution in the country with calls for greater transparency. A new Blacksmith project might just have a solution. This report is from Abby Schultz in Blacksmith’s China office: --- The.

                Pure Earth is launching the cleanup of a lead-contaminated soccer field in Cinangka, Indonesia, so that children in the village can play without being poisoned. The project, starting this month, is being.

We are excited to announce our recent partnership with Cellar Angels, a fast-growing wine fundraising organization that offers you a unique way to support Blacksmith while enjoying high-quality wines from Napa and Sonoma. As a personal wine concierge, Cellar Angels.

We have great news. Blacksmith Institute has been recognized as one of the country's top performing nonprofits AGAIN, confirming our continued effectiveness at what we do with sound fiscal management, accountability and transparency. We retained our 4 star charity rating,.

Pollution is finally getting official attention in Indonesia July, 2013 You know that a government is getting serious about something when there are official workshops and conferences. We are glad to report that last month, the Indonesian Ministry of Environment.

Farmer Youtian He's wife and daughter near their polluted rice fields.  Mrs. He and other relatives are suffering from cancer. He worries about his young daughter. The bright green rice fields planted close to the brick-and-tile homes in Shangba, a.

If you read our earlier post on India's Amazing Pollution Story, you will know that great things are happening in that country. Plans are in the works to clean up ten of the country's worst polluted sites, which Blacksmith helped.

Pure Earth's global team, consisting of experts from around the world, gathered in New York in early April (2013) to discuss remediation work in their home countries, share ideas and plan future projects. Updated Sept 2016 to reflect name change.

Our latest post appeared in the Indiaspora blog, reproduced below. Join us on May 7, 2013 for Blacksmith's Benefit for India. An Undesirable Export Recently, the nonprofit I work with received a letter from a man who said he was.

Fernando Lugris, chair of the INC negotiations (left), with representatives of the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution at INC5. I attended the INC5 mercury negotiations in Geneva last month along with members of the Global Alliance on Health and.

News about pollution has lately been dominated by reporting on China's increasingly toxic air, water and land.  All this attention is crucial because it is the catalyst to change. We don't know when or where, but change is bound to.

As we've been harshly reminded, schools can sometimes be exposed to great danger. The tragedy last month in the U.S. got us thinking about what we are doing in schools in Mailuu-Suu, Kyrgyzstan. Although the threat is different, the response.

Welcome to Blacksmith’s Newsletter Archives. Sept/Oct 2013: Top Ten Toxic Threats in 2013 Helping Countries Abide by Minamata Bringing Poisoned Poor to the European Parliament Training Women in Senegal Why are Children in Mexico Still Suffering from Lead Global Remediation.

Rice Paddies are the cradle of life in many countries.  But some have become conduits of death and disease because of industrial pollution. A famous case of rice padi poisoning was documented in Toyama prefecture in Japan in the 1960s..

One of the most interesting outcomes of this U.S. election is that it has reminded us that data is king. Nate Silver from the New York Time's FiveThirtyEight blog has become a celebrity of sorts for coming up with data that.

I see the "us" and "them" mentality all too often especially when pollution is involved.  Take legacy pollution for example. Legacy pollution refers to what is left behind after the source of the contamination - say a polluting factory -.

Retailers figured it out a long time ago. They could improve business if they made shopping easier. So they began to offer consumers everything they might need under one roof. Hence the success and popularity of one-stop shops. In a.

When Andrew Blackwell was researching his new book Visit Sunny Chernobyl, he contacted us to learn a little more about our work and about Blacksmith's list of world's worst polluted places. Turns out he was visiting some of these very same hotspots..

[caption id="attachment_14699" align="alignnone" width="300"] Child gold miners in Tanzania. Credit: Madeline Cottingham and Evan Simon.[/caption] Recently, a young environmentalist, who had done some work for Blacksmith, returned from Tanzania with some fascinating photographs and stories to share. Madeline and her.

Children at the site of the world's worst outbreak of lead poisoning in Nigeria The CDC recently lowered the recommended limit for lead exposure in young children from 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood, to 5. This means.

Kids barefoot on a toxic field in Indonesia Recently, John Keith, Blacksmith's globe-trotting expert, led an armchair tour of Asia's toxic hotspots for a group in NYC.  An environmental engineer, John has worked on numerous projects in 72 countries and counting,.

This July, we are returning to the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center in Italy to convene a third meeting of world leaders and experts on pollution, this time to create a global alliance to deal with legacy pollution at scale. Our.

This week's blog post is from Andrew McCartor, Blacksmith's regional program director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Blacksmith was recently approached for help to raise awareness about the massive toxic pollution caused by an active lead smelter in the.

Karti Sandilya, Advisor, Blacksmith Institute In Malcolm Gladwell's bestselling book The Tipping Point, he describes how little things can make a big difference, and he points to "connectors" - people who provide links to others - as a crucial element.

A movement is taking root in the small province of Benguet in the Philippines that might just revolutionize the artisanal gold mining industry and greatly reduce worldwide toxic mercury emissions. Gold miners there are rediscovering a century-old method of gold.

[caption id="attachment_15339" align="alignnone" width="213"] Kids in La Oroya[/caption] The embattled Doe Run lead smelting facility in Peru may finally be getting a break. We met with Dr. Juan Carlos Huyhua, the president of Doe Run Peru, in New York last.

I recently came across the article India's Pollution Nightmare:  Can it be Tackled?, in which the author, Govindasamy Agoramoorthy, talks about three big perils plaguing India - polluting tanneries, lead contamination from informal battery recycling, and riverside industries that dump toxic waste into.

When people talk of tackling pollution, they usually mean stopping pollution. But what if the pollution has already been halted, in some cases decades ago?  For example at numerous former Cold War weapons manufacturing sites? [caption id="attachment_15343" align="alignnone" width="300"] Ghana's.

We were recently criticized by an industry group of leather manufacturers for listing tannery operations #5 on the 2011 list of world's worst toxic pollution problems. The group called our report’s assertions “sensationalist and not appropriate." (Read our response in.

Contrary to popular belief, large multinational corporations are NOT the worst pollution problems.  That was one of the more interesting findings revealed in our 2011 World's Worst Toxic Pollution Problems report. [caption id="attachment_15346" align="alignnone" width="150"] La-Oroya-3-Anna[/caption] Of course large corporations.

See updated version: 15 Pollution Facts that Might Surprise You Pollution is a topic that often gets buried by talk of conservation, climate change, sustainability and energy issues.  Perhaps because it is a complex subject with lots of sources and.

What is Pollution? Once you know the facts, talking about pollution is crucial, as I've mentioned in my last two blog postings. So this month, we are launching The Blacksmith Institute Pollution Talks - finally giving a name to the.

It's Pollution Prevention Week. Chances are, you've not really heard about it. In my last post, I wrote about the Brown Agenda vs. the Green Agenda. Pollution is part of the Brown Agenda.  I bet you haven't heard a lot.

  Update:  Aug, 2015.   "The Brown Agenda" is now a best-selling book.  Pure Earth founder Richard Fuller has chronicled his experiences doing cleanup in some of the world's worst polluted places to highlight the issue at the ground level, and.

Dr. B. Sengupta recently sat down with Sarita Gupta to talk about India's growing toxic waste problem - by his count, India generates over 8 million tons of toxic waste every year but only has the capacity to deal with.

[caption id="attachment_15423" align="alignnone" width="128"] Low-cost retort for recapturing mercury[/caption] August 2011 This is what I like to call our "miracle" mercury recapturing machine. Using simple, low-cost retorts like the one pictured here, Pure Earth has been able to reduce the.

I was in Beijing last week when news broke of a series of lead poisoning outbreaks in China, followed closely by a Human Right Watch report on China's response to its toxic lead problem. (Here are links to the New.

[caption id="attachment_15422" align="alignnone" width="300"] Russian President Dmitry Medvedev meets with NGOs in Moscow about the country's pollution crisis, June 8, 2011.[/caption] Petr Sharov, Blacksmith's Russia and Central Asia coordinator, attended a meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev at the Kremlin in.

Richard Fuller accepting the UN-Backed Green Star Award on behalf of Blacksmith Institute, May 18, 2011, Bern, Switzerland. The award recognizes work in environmental emergencies. Congratulations to all the other winners, and especially to our partners – TerraGraphics Environmental Engineering.

My last post pointed to new studies that indicate chronic mercury exposure in the U.S. has risen dramatically. In fact, mercury is identified as one of the Top Six Toxic Threats in Blacksmith Institute's most recent report, which draws on.

Chronic mercury exposure in the U.S. has risen dramatically, not only in numbers of people affected but also in amounts. A study by Professor Dan Laks found that mercury was detected in only 2% of the blood samples collected over.

It's been 25 years since the meltown at Chernobyl and the abandoned town of Pripyat still echoes with tragedy.  Those of you who saw our virtual tour via our blog posts of April 4 and April 6 would already have.

Is nuclear power on your mind? Us too. As part of a site assessment trip to Ukraine, Pure Earth staff and technical advisers visited the world's worst nuclear disaster site. On April 26, 1986, a series of explosions occurred at.

When an American plane went down in North Vietnam during the war, the story goes that a villager knew how to smelt down the plane for valuable aluminum. And that was how the aluminum village began. Today, it is one.

Blacksmith Institute has published the first issue of The Journal of Health and Pollution, a semiannual, on-line, open-access publication of peer-reviewed research and news. “JH&P” can be found at www.journalhealthpollution.org. Included in the inaugural edition are invited commentaries: Environmental Pollution.

Reporting in before the holiday break, John Keith, Blacksmith Institute’s on-scene project manager at the Zamfara, Nigeria, lead contamination remediation project, says landfills have been construction at all five villages in the original project scope and clean soil brought to.

It has been three years of tense litigation between El Salvador’s Attorney General’s office and the Grupo Record lead-acid battery facility since Blacksmith Institute’s first visit in 2008.  After his meeting with Herman Rosa Chavez, Salvadorian Minister of the Environment,.

As you might have noticed, there has not been a new post lately on The Pollution Blog.  Part of the reason is that I have been busy with the recent and ongoing lead poisoning emergency in Nigeria. This is a.

Lead expert Jack Caravanos conducts a simple blood test for lead A few days ago, we held our special Earth Day event-- "Get the Lead Out"--at Rockefeller Plaza in NYC to raise funds and awareness of lead pollution and poisoning.

It has been 40 years since the very first Earth Day. No doubt, things have changed for the better, at least here in the U.S. Our environment is much cleaner, and life-threatening pollution of the kind brought to light by.

This week, I will hand this space off to Jack Caravanos, a member of Blacksmith's Technical Advisory Board and a leading expert in lead pollution/contamination. Jack is part of part of a project in Ghana jointly funded by Blacksmith and.

Finally the drumbeat is getting louder on the issue of environmental toxins and I say it is about time. Last month, NYT's Nicholas Kristof wrote an op-ed on the link between autism (and other diseases) and environmental toxins.  Now, Time.

Jairam Ramesh, Richard Fuller, speaking in India I just returned from India last week, where I heard about crocodiles that have reportedly turned pink, and whose tongues have gone white because of dyes polluting the rivers.  I also heard about.

"God's Paradise Will be Removed from World's Worst Polluted Places" “Declared Green Zone at God's Paradise – Happiness Where There Was Once Contamination.” “Park Provides Health at God's Paradise” These local headlines tell the story. Twelve days ago, Paraíso de.

I am heading off to India, today, where I will be the keynote speaker at a gathering about toxic pollution, cleanup and economic development.  I believe this session will spark increasing cleanup efforts in India because of the presenting parties.

Did you see Nicholas Kristof's op-ed in yesterday's New York Times on the link between autism (and other diseases like cancers) and environmental toxins?  Kristof points to concern about American's using plastic containers to microwave food, and using products with.

I am glad to report that the Rockefeller Foundation has invited us back to the Bellagio Center in Italy this September to reconvene the next international meeting about the Health and Pollution Fund (HPF) - the planned $500 million public.

An interesting new perspective has opened up on the dangers of pollution.  While most people know that pollution poisons, it now seems that the immune system is especially affected by contaminants.  Pollution appears to skew the body away from making.

Does pollution plague a country because it is poor? Or does pollution make a country poor? While the case for the former can be easily made -- poorer nations have less resources for cleanup and regulations; the case for the.

Just returned from Mexico with Blacksmith's globe-trotting program officer Bret Ericson (who's also the task manager for our global inventory project).  For me, Mexico always brings to mind wonderful, colorful pottery, perhaps because there is a such a strong ceramics.

It's been a good start to the year for us on the funding side. We just received confirmation that we will be getting a $900,000 infusion to complete work on our Global Inventory Project, which is about one-third done (see.

Amalgam of mercury and gold I first blogged about the toxic connection between gold and mercury back in December in my post All That Glitters, when the price of gold reached a record high.  Back then, we asked you to.

When Dr. Philip J. Landrigan was asked what he thought was the most important thing people can do to save the planet, his answer was "protect children from toxic environments." Pollutants, especially lead and pesticides, have been the focus of.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!  I am taking this shameless opportunity to remind everyone out there that there's still time to take Blacksmith Institute's $5 a Day December Holiday Challenge!  So if you are still wondering what to get that somebody who has.

I was going to write about Copenhagen and "climategate" today ... but then I came across a curious piece of news about potty training pigs! It seems a farmer in Taiwan has trained his pigs to use a litter box,.

For the next two weeks, the eyes of the world will be on Copenhagen, where leaders of some 200 countries have gathered to try to find some kind of consensus on tackling the problem of climate change. "Unless the world can.

Over the past year, Bret Ericson has been  traveling the world helping to compile a unique list -- the first ever global inventory of polluted places "Currently, a worldwide list of sites where pollution is acutely affecting human health does.

young gold miner in Indonesia. Photo from borneomercury.com The price of gold hit a record high today, reaching $1,216.75 an ounce in Europe. What does this have to do with pollution? Well, in this age of globalization, everything is connected.

Jakarta - we are so fortunate to have Budi Susilorini working for us there.  She's our eyes, ears and hands on the ground for our cleanup work in Indonesia.  We're about to kick off a project targeting lead poisoning on.

Blacksmith is working to avert a catastrophe on the scale of Bhopal or Chernobyl at the old Gorlovka chemical plant in the Ukraine. Recently, I've been working to avert a catastrophe at the Gorlovka chemical plant  in the Ukraine, which.

David Hanrahan, Blacksmith's director of global operations, described it best when he called them "12 pinpricks of light" - these are the 12 cases of cleanup and success we found around the world. I was surprised and a little shocked.

Jack Caravanos has cut his way through jungles in Panama, climbed mountains in Peru, dodged cobras in India, and waded through murky rivers in the Dominican Republic, all to get a sample of contaminated soil, air or water.  He has fallen and.

One more thing... today we released our latest Blacksmith report on the World's Worst Polluted Places.  This time, we focused on successes, which are few and far between.  We had a good turnout - half a dozen reporters, from most.

Well, its good to be back home, after two weeks of travel.  Then add on a week of H1N1 flu.  Seems that those signs you see posted in Asian airports are right after all - its out there, and its.

Richard Fuller in Rudnaya Pristan, listed in Blacksmith's 2006 report as one of the world's worst polluted places Here we go, joining the digital age. Welcome, all, to Blacksmith Institute's blog about pollution, solutions to same, and everything related... A.

In a country as large and diverse as India, Promila Sharma understands the value in bringing people together, even if they are on opposing sides of an argument. "I love the collaborative approach Pure Earth uses to tackle issues," says Sharma, Pure Earth's India coordinator,.