#8/1, Block-C, Lalmatia
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Our Team
DR. MAHFUZAR RAHMAN
Country Director
[email protected]
DR. AZIZ HASAN
Senior Advisor
ARIF SIKDER
Senior Advisor
MITALI DAS
Communications Lead
[email protected]
MD. LUTFUL KABIR
Field Investigator
Project with Uni. of Dhaka
GOLAM MORTUZA MILON
Health and Safety Officer
Project with Uni. of Dhaka
NUZHAT FERDOUS ISLAM
Communications Associate
ENGLISH | BANGLA
About Pure Earth Bangladesh
Pure Earth Bangladesh started its journey in 2011 and has made progress in expanding capacity, building partnerships, and carrying out foundational research, mainly on the lead sources, toxic site assessments (300+ toxic sites were assessed in Bangladesh), lead remediation program (conducted first known lead remediation that resulted in a 35% decline in children’s blood lead levels).
Pure Earth Bangladesh has recently extended its research efforts to identify the lead sources in consumer products including spices and cookware. Pure Earth Bangladesh has partnered with government agencies to develop and implement a Health and Pollution Action Plan (HPAP).
Pure Earth Bangladesh works cooperatively in partnerships that include governments, NGOs, civil society organizations, research institutes, universities, and media agencies to reduce lead exposure, raise awareness, and design and implement innovative solutions to save lives. Here we believe that Together, we can end lead pollution.
Channel 24 News Bangladesh Reports on Pure Earth’s Lead Remediation Work
Environment Day Seminar: Stakeholders took a pledge to work together for a ‘lead-safe Bangladesh’
At the Environment Day Seminar titled ‘Engaging Stakeholders for Mitigating Lead Pollution in Bangladesh’, the speakers urged urgent intervention in the used lead-acid battery (ULAB) sector to formalize the charging and recycling system.
The chair of the event, the Director of Dhaka Laboratory, Department of Environment expressed that the department needs proper guidelines for managing the environmental and health crisis due to lead pollution.
Know about the Bangladesh lead pollution statistics and recommendations in this advocacy one-pager
Read more about the event:
WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 2022
There is #OnlyOneEarth and together we can protect it.
Lead pollution is a silent killer.
The confirmed and suspected lead sources in Bangladesh are lead-acid battery manufacturing and recycling, spices (turmeric), lead-based paint, aluminum cookware, e-waste, contaminated food, jewelry-making, gold waste processing, cosmetics, religious powders, and traditional medicines.
Projects
Programmatic Solutions
Research on Lead Sources
Toxic Site Assessments
Lead Remediation Program
Advocacy and Campaigns
The chief concern of lead exposure is its impact on children’s brains.
Lead causes permanent brain damage and IQ loss, and as a result, decreases economic productivity. Productivity losses from lead exposure reduce Bangladesh’s GDP, thus lead is not only a health issue but a poverty-reduction issue. The safe management of the ULAB is also critical to address climate solutions. Lead pollution is not only health, economic and environmental issue. It also undermines many cross-cutting development areas including education, societal stability, and violence.
Events
Environment Day Seminar: Engaging Stakeholders for Mitigating Lead Pollution in Bangladesh
Pure Earth Bangladesh is going to organize a seminar to observe the Environment Day with the support from the Department of Environment (DoE), Director General of Health Services (DGHS), UNICEF, and Clarios Foundation. This event will create an opportunity to engage the stakeholders to take unified actions to prevent lead pollution and share the learnings and achievements of the recent lead remediation project which has been completed at the Mirzapur, Tangail district.
When: 8 June 2022
Where: Auditorium, Department of Environment, Paribesh Bhavan, Agangaon
Community Gathering Event at Mirzapur to Raise Awareness on Lead Pollution
Pure Earth Bangladesh, together with its partner, the Department of Geology, University of Dhaka has organized a community gathering event to raise awareness among the community people on the lead pollution issue and share the importance and insights of the lead remediation project that is currently being implemented by Pure Earth, the Department of Geology, Dhaka University, and icddr,b in the Rajabari village, Mirzapur Upazila, Tangail district.
The community gathering event was organized with support from UNICEF, and funding from the USAID, TAUW, and Clarios Foundation.
When: 5 March 2022
Where: Rajabari village, Mirzapur Upazila, Tangail district.
Press Releases
- Pollution responsible for 9 million deaths in 2019, with little progress in four years: Lancet Report
- Hundreds of community people at Mirzapur joined together in solidarity of putting an end to lead pollution (March 2022)
- Lead Pollution, The Silent Killer: Needs Urgent Attention and Multi-Sectoral Actions, Bangladesh (July 2021)
- New Research Confirms Findings Of Childhood Lead Poisoning Crisis In Low- And Middle-Income Countries (March 2021)
- Pure Earth, Clarios Foundation and UNICEF launch Protecting Every Child’s Potential: A Future Free from Lead Exposure (October 2020)
- A third of the world’s children poisoned by lead, new groundbreaking analysis says, UNICEF and Pure Earth (July 2020)
- Pure Earth, Clarios Foundation and UNICEF announce global partnership to protect children from lead exposure (July 2020)
News Coverage
Stay up to date with our work:
- Put an end to lead pollution, The Daily Star (June 2022)
- Legalising Bangladesh ‘easy bike’ taxis could drive safer, greener industry, Thompson Reuters Foundation (April 2022)
- High level of lead in blood of 3 and a half crore children in Bangladesh, United News of India (May 2022)
- Environment pollution: 2.15lakh lives lost in Bangladesh in 2019, The Daily Star (May 2022)
- Awareness campaign on lead pollution held in Mirzapur, The Business Standard (March 2022)
- E-waste management in Bangladesh, The Financial Express (February 2022)
- Combating the menace of lead exposure, The Financial Express (January 2022)
- The economics of lead induced child intelligence, The Financial Express (December 2021)
- Lead poisoning Ravaging a nation, The Daily Star (December 2021)
- Harmful effects of lead on human health, Financial Express (December 2021)
- Poison in our blood, Dhaka Tribune (November 2021)
- How much lead in blood is too much?, The Daily Star (November 2021)
- Children at Higher Risk of Lead Poisoning Prothom Alo (November 2021)
- Thinking about lead pollution solution, The Daily Prothom Alo (October 2021)
- Exposure to Lead Through Cosmetics Should be a Big Concern, The Dhaka Tribune (October 2021)
- Multi-sector approach imperative: speakers, The Daily Star (July 2021)
- Lead causes 4th highest death in BD: Speakers, The Daily Observer (July 2021)
- Multi-sectoral actions needed to reduce Lead pollution: Speakers, The Business Standard (July 2021) SEE MORE
Knowledge Materials
Find public education materials and research:
- Advocacy Leaflet: Major lead statistics & Recommendation
- Sticker: Sources of Exposure to Lead
- Sticker: Organ and Age-specific damages by lead
- Sticker: Campaign Slogans to Prevent Lead Pollution
- Sticker: Impacts of Lead Poisoning on Human Body
- Mirzapur Lead Poisoning Remediation Project Leaflet
- Global Lead Fact Sheet
- Bangladesh Lead Pollution Fact Sheet
- Kathgora Lead Poisoning Awareness Laflet
- Kathgora Lead Poisoning Awareness Poster
- Turmeric means “yellow” in Bengali: Lead chromate pigments added to turmeric threaten public health across Bangladesh
- Examining the Relationship Between Blood Lead Level and Stunting, Wasting, and Underweight
- Bangladesh HPAP Social Media Posts
“We need to work together to solve this global problem.
Pure Earth opened that door to take unified actions.”
Ashraf Uddin
Ex – Director General
Department of Environment (DoE)
“The government has made the eradication of lead exposures
a priority to protect the environment for future generations.”
Ahmed Shamim Al Razi
Additional Secretary
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
“It is important to identify all the sources of lead poisoning.
One of the targets of SDG is to reduce chemical waste by 2030.”
Robed Amin
Line Director, NCDC
Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS)
Our Partners and Donors
