POLLUTION BLOG

Pure Earth provides technical leadership in Ethiopia's coordinated response to lead contamination. In many communities across Ethiopia, lead contamination has long remained a silent yet pervasive public health concern, quietly embedded in everyday life through sources such as informal used...

Pure Earth Perú y Wyss Academy for Nature se unen para implementar modelos de restauración que recuperen los ecosistemas, reduzcan el impacto del mercurio y generen nuevas formas de ingreso para las familias mineras.   Madre de Dios es un...

En un esfuerzo conjunto por proteger la salud de la población y prevenir la exposición al plomo, Pure Earth Perú sostuvo una reunión estratégica con representantes del Ministerio Público, como parte de las acciones previas a la firma de un convenio que busca fortalecer capacidades, conocimientos...

In a joint effort to protect public health and prevent lead exposure, Pure Earth Peru held a strategic meeting with representatives of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, as part of the preparatory actions for the signing of an agreement aimed at...

La Comisión de Energía y Minas del Congreso de la República aprobó un dictamen que propone establecer un marco normativo para la eliminación progresiva del uso de mercurio en la minería artesanal y de pequeña escala. La iniciativa deberá ser...

[caption id="attachment_33585" align="aligncenter" width="8192"] Fotografía: Vico Méndez[/caption] En el distrito de Inambari, la concesión minera Saltur VI, liderada por la señora Victoria Condori, inició un proceso de reforestación en una hectárea intervenida, como parte del cierre de minas y de...

In the Inambari district, the Saltur VI mining concession, led by Ms. Victoria Condori, initiated a reforestation process on one intervened hectare as part of its mine closure efforts and its commitment to responsible and mercury-free mining. Saltur VI's activities...

Lead exposure mitigation efforts in Indonesia have just made significant progress in 2025. As part of the Strengthening Health Systems to Reduce Lead Exposure project, Yayasan Pure Earth Indonesia in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the National Research...

With 29 projects across 16 low- and middle-income countries, 2025 marked a year of remarkable growth, collaboration, and global recognition for Pure Earth. Across four continents, our teams paired scientific rigor with practical implementation, helping governments, communities, and institutions move...

The Australian Embassy in Mexico, led by Her Excellency Ambassador Rachel Moseley, made an official visit to the communities of San Felipe Cuapexco, Cohuecan, and Acteopan, Puebla, to witness firsthand the results of the program “Circle of Women Made of...

We are pleased to share our new report, Global Lead Program: 2024 Results and Achievements, which details the activities and accomplishments of Pure Earth's global, collective effort to reduce lead poisoning. The report also includes an annex listing key milestones achieved...

In a vibrant exchange of knowledge and emotions, a group of Peruvian women, members of the MAPE Women Miners Network of Madre de Dios, experienced a unique journey in Antioquia, Colombia. This internship, organized in collaboration with Wyss Academy, Pure...

A wave of international media coverage has brought necessary attention to the lead poisoning crisis in Bangladesh, where 36 million children are estimated to have elevated blood lead levels. A powerful report from Agence-France Presse (AFP) details how the unregulated...

One year ago, a promise was made: to work alongside the women miners of Madre de Dios and support them on their journey toward responsible mining. Today, that promise becomes a reality with the signing of an agreement between Pure...

Lead is a threat to children's health in Peru. Aware of this issue, the Ministry of Health (Minsa) has signed an agreement with the organizations Pure Earth and Vital Strategies to strengthen surveillance and care for children under five years...

La exposición al plomo es un problema significativo de salud pública mundial, con impactos graves en la salud infantil, especialmente en el desarrollo cognitivo y el comportamiento. Se estima que más de medio millón de niños tienen niveles de plomo...

In January, Pure Earth Philippines Country Director Larah Ortega-Ibañez participated in a webinar hosted by the Partnership for a Lead-Free Future, providing practical guidance on how to conduct an environmental lead exposure risk assessment.  The session explored strategies for risk...

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...

In the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, Madre de Dios faces the environmental and social challenges posed by artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM). However, a group of women is transforming this reality through an innovative project led by Pure...

En el corazón de la Amazonía peruana, Madre de Dios se enfrenta a los desafíos del impacto ambiental y social causado por la minería artesanal y de pequeña escala (MAPE). Sin embargo, un grupo de mujeres está transformando esta realidad...

El sector de la joyería tiene una oportunidad única de impactar positivamente en el mundo al optar por metales preciosos obtenidos de manera ética y responsable. En Pure Earth Perú, nuestro compromiso es colaborar con la transformación de la minería...

At Pure Earth Peru, our commitment is to support the transformation of legal artisanal mining in Madre de Dios, a region of incredible biodiversity where traditionally informal, mercury-dependent gold mining has caused significant environmental and social damage. Through our project...

In December, Pure Earth released new and updated technical guidelines and protocols on mitigating lead and mercury exposure, which draw on our 25 years of expertise in assessing and preventing exposure to toxic pollution. The protocols are based on our...

The implementation of the first phase of blood lead surveillance (BLS) piloting in Indonesia, as part of the Strengthening Health Systems to Reduce Lead Exposure project, has reached a significant milestone. Following extensive preparations since April 2024—including numerous technical meetings...

La contaminación por mercurio, principalmente generada por actividades mineras ilícitas, representa una de las mayores amenazas para el medio ambiente y la salud pública en Colombia, siendo el principal emisor per cápita de mercurio en el mundo, con una liberación...

Mercury pollution, primarily generated by illicit mining activities, represents one of the greatest threats to the environment and public health in Colombia. The country is the world’s largest per capita emitter of mercury, with significant releases stemming from small-scale gold...

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...

As part of the Strengthening Health Systems to Reduce Lead Exposure project, specialists from the National Institute of Public Health under the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic are being trained in the use of modern Leadcare 2 equipment,...

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...

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...

On a recent trip to the Peruvian Amazon, Rodrigo Velarde, Pure Earth Peru’s Country Director, Jen Maraccino, Pure Earth's Senior Director of Development, and Allison Charalambous, Brilliant Earth's Vice President of Responsible Sourcing and Sustainability, visited Artisanal Miners Association Tauro...

More than 50 Pueblan artisans received training in modern and sustainable lead-free pottery techniques during the Pottery Knowledge Communities Meet-Up. San Bartolo Cohuecan will host a transformative event aimed at strengthening artisanal production and eliminating the use of lead in...

Pure Earth Bangladesh and UNCTAD Host Workshop on Solutions to Formalize Electric Three-Wheeler Transportation, Prevent Lead Pollution On April 3, 2024 in Dhaka, Bangladesh, more than 30 stakeholders from various sectors including government agencies, NGOs, international development organizations, financial institutions,...

Following USAID Administrator Samantha Power’s call for lead-free futures at DAVOS in January of this year, Atul Gawande, Assistant Administrator of USAID Global Health, met with the Philippines’ National Poison Management and Control Center (NPMCC) and Pure Earth Philippines to...

The 4th Potters' Gathering highlighted the importance of adopting safe and lead-free practices in pottery production, thereby contributing to the health and well-being of the community. It is important to preserve the rich cultural tradition of pottery in Mexico, recognizing...

2023 was a transformative year in our decades-long efforts to stem lead poisoning, mercury poisoning, and other toxic chemical threats. Our proven interventions, combined with data from our pioneering research, continued to draw the attention of major institutions around the...

Pure Earth teams around the world joined WHO and dozens of other organizations in marking the 11th year of International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (ILPPW) galvanizing efforts around this year’s theme, “End Childhood Lead Poisoning”. The WHO expanded the list...

Written By: Sandeep Dahiya, Director Advocacy and Communications, Pure Earth India This July, Pure Earth, the Institute of Environment and Eco-Development (IEED), Vital Strategies and  Mahavir Cancer Institute and Research Center convened a half-day, high-level conference “Understanding Lead Poisoning Prevalence...

Learn more about how we are building support for action on lead poisoning in Bangladesh in this report from Bushra Humaira Sadaf, Senior Communications Manager, Pure Earth Bangladesh. [caption id="attachment_23810" align="alignnone" width="599"] Organizers and presenters with special guests, chair, and...

Pure Earth Bangladesh plans to protect their country's future by accelerating nationwide awareness through the inclusion of lead pollution into the national curriculum. Learn more in this post from Bushra Humaira Sadaf, Senior Communications Manager, Pure Earth Bangladesh. Protecting Our...

    I believe good comes from hard and heart work. That’s why I’m proud to be part of Pure Earth Philippines, a team willing to put in the hard work, motivated by big hearts beating for the greater good....

Over the years, Pure Earth has cultivated and worked with a dedicated and highly skilled global network of professionals that we continue to call on for regional and specialized expertise. Recently, a group of our colleagues launched a new organization...

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,...

Rodrigo Velarde, Pure Earth's new Country Manager for Peru, shares an update on his team's work in developing responsible solutions to mitigate pollution, and achieving recognition in the Latin American region for its work to create the first mercury-free gold...

This report is from Sandeep Dahiya, Pure Earth India's Director of Advocacy and Communications. A high-level roundtable, "A World Free of Lead Poisoning," convened on Tuesday, 25th April 2023, in New Delhi, India, by the Center for Global Development, in...

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...

In this spotlight, Pure Earth’s Country Director for Bangladesh, Dr. Mahfuzar Rahman, and Pure Earth Bangladesh Communications Lead, Mitali Das, share updates about the team's efforts to mitigate lead pollution in Bangladesh. Follow and stay updated on Pure Earth Bangladesh...

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...

2022 was a year of growth. Pure Earth programs doubled in size, enabling us to expand our focus on lead and mercury in the most impacted countries. As a result of this expansion, long-time Pure Earth officer Drew McCartor, who...

This report from the field by Pure Earth program officer Lavanya Nambiar shares updates about how our work is improving  lives in a village in Bangladesh .  In Mirzapur, a small village on the outskirts of Bangladesh’s capital city, Dhaka,...

For over four years, Pure Earth has been working with a mining association in an alliance that was formed thanks to the working relationship between the association's president Vilma C. and Pure Earth local coordinator France Cabanillas.  Today, the mining...

Join us on a walk through a community in Vellore with Sandeep Dahiya, Pure Earth India's Director of Strategic Communications.  The people of Rangapuram, Vellore, India, are busy, have less educational opportunities, and are not very  aware of lead exposure...

Sandeep Dahiya, Pure Earth India’s Director of Strategic Communications, reports on this important meeting on childhood lead poisoning. Pure Earth India, in collaboration with TERI - The Energy and Resources Institute, organized a seminar on “Understanding Lead Poisoning Prevalence in...

On October 20, just days before we launched our global outreach for International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (ILPPW), we received word that Pure Earth President Richard Fuller was being recognized as one of Vox's Future Perfect 50, honoring individuals building a more perfect future. In...

Lead poisoning in Mexico is an urgent health problem that can cause brain damage,  IQ loss, and other developmental delays especially in children who eat food prepared and served in lead-glazed pottery. Despite the fact that almost half of all...

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...

Out of 121 applicants from 22 countries, a team from Pure Earth Colombia has emerged as one of the top 13 finalists selected for a $1 million challenge prize to protect the Amazon from impacts of artisanal and small-scale gold...

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...

Why are women's circles important? Because as women, we spend our time caring for others. We take care of men, the elderly, children, but sometimes we forget to also take care of ourselves. Women's circles are important because historically, those...

  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....

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

[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...

"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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...