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POLLUTION BLOG

Pure Earth's Pollution Blog puts
the spotlight on one of the
biggest, yet most underreported,
global problems – toxic pollution.

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Pure Earth Vice President, Gabriel Sanchez visits Ghana.

By: Nana Agyei Sikapa Ofosu-Manu Apr 14 , 2025

Pure Earth Named Most Cost-Effective Charity for Improving Wellbeing in the World Happiness Report 2025

By: Sarah Berg Mar 19 , 2025

In a chapter in this year's World Happiness Report on effective giving, the Happier Lives Institute (HLI) ranks Pure Earth as the most cost-effective charity for improving the wellbeing of others. This is the first global review of published evidence...

Spotlight on Pure Earth Ghana- Blessing Enyonam Gbadago on International Women’s Day

By: Nana Agyei Sikapa Ofosu-Manu Mar 06 , 2025

Blessing Enyonam Gbadago- Technical Project Officer, Pure Earth Ghana.    Blessing is an Environmental Geoscientist, and she’s making waves in her field. In an industry long dominated by men, she has carved out a space for herself, excelling and leading...

Pure Earth Launches New Lead-Prevention Program in Seven Countries

By: Pure Earth Feb 11 , 2025

Pure Earth is pleased to announce the launch of a new program, “Mitigating Lead Exposure in Low- and Middle-Income Countries,” being implemented in Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Peru, and the Philippines. Support for this program comes from a generous...

Pure Earth Launches Mercury Impact Assessment Project in Ghana with International Collaboration

By: Nana Agyei Sikapa Ofosu-Manu Sep 02 , 2024

Accra, Ghana — On August 27th, 2024, a significant stride towards environmental sustainability and public health was made as Blacksmith Initiative dba Pure Earth launched the Mercury Impact Assessment Study Project in Accra. The project, funded by the Foreign Commonwealth...

Research Brief: How Are Malawi’s Rural Solar Energy Systems and Lead Poisoning Connected? 

By: Chris Kinally Aug 21 , 2024

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 Ghana Hosts Successful Workshop to Combat Lead Pollution and Poisoning at the University of Ghana

By: Nana Agyei Sikapa Ofosu-Manu Aug 07 , 2024

As part of Pure Earth’s advocacy campaign, we engaged the students at the University of Ghana, Department of Earth Science (Ghana Institute of Geoscience) to empower the youth to combat lead pollution and poisoning. Pure Earth Ghana with the University...

Pure Earth Ghana Signs Declaration of National Action Plan to Reduce Lead Poisoning

By: Nana Agyei Sikapa Ofosu-Manu Aug 25 , 2023

In a historic move to protect the health of Ghana’s children, Pure Earth, Blacksmith Initiative, alongside UNICEF and the Ghana Health Service, has signed a Declaration of National Action against Lead Poisoning. This crucial step was announced on 24th August...

Spotlight on Ghana: Flagship Country in Africa for Pure Earth’s Lead Reduction Efforts

By: Esmond Quansah May 19 , 2023

Esmond Quansah, Pure Earth Ghana's Country Director, highlights the pollution problems facing his country, and how his team is working to fix it. Learn more about our work in Ghana  and follow Pure Earth Ghana on social media:  Instagram, Twitter,...

Looking for Lead in Markets Across 25 Countries

By: Sarah Berg Feb 21 , 2023

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...

Project Highlights 2015: A String Of Firsts

By: Sarah Berg Feb 23 , 2016

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...

Year In Review: Lead Free Homes For The First Time In 100 Years

By: Sarah Berg Jan 18 , 2016

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...

So Fresh And So Clean

By: Sarah Berg Nov 25 , 2015

“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."  --...

Nearly 100% Of Children In This Neighborhood Have Been Poisoned

By: Sarah Berg Nov 16 , 2015

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...

(UPDATE) Transforming Agbogbloshie: From Toxic Dump Into Model Recycling Center

By: Mag Sim Jun 25 , 2015

  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....

Nigeria: New Outbreak of Lead Poisoning

By: Sarah Berg Jun 08 , 2015

 "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...

CDC’s MMWR Features Our Findings on Lead in Kabwe’s Children

By: Sarah Berg Nov 10 , 2014

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...

Kabwe’s Children’s Silent Struggles

By: Sarah Berg Oct 28 , 2014

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...

The Story of A Mother and the Five Children She Lost

By: Sarah Berg Jun 03 , 2014

[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,...

Snapshots of Progress in 2013 – AFRICA

By: Sarah Berg Jan 29 , 2014

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...

Training Women in Senegal

By: Sarah Berg Oct 25 , 2013

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...
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