Solve pollution. Save lives. Protect the planet.

Training Women in Senegal

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.

Read

Why Are Millions of Children in Mexico Still Suffering From Lead Poisoning?

Oct 25 , 2013

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,.

Read

Battery Recycling Done Correctly

Sep 17 , 2013

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.

Read

Engaging the Chinese Public in Environmental Issues

Aug 28 , 2013

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.

Read

Wishing for a soccer field that does not poison

Aug 28 , 2013

                Aug, 2013. 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,.

Read

Pollution cleanup gets serious in Indonesia

Jul 12 , 2013

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.

Read

The Toxic Rice Fields of China’s Cancer Villages

Jun 11 , 2013

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.

Read

India’s Amazing Pollution Story

Apr 15 , 2013

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.

Read

Mercury Negotiations Recharged With Hot Chocolate and Cookies

Feb 14 , 2013

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.

Read

Pollution Lessons from History

Jan 28 , 2013

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.

Read
Protecting Children in Schools Where Uranium Was Mined For Atomic Bomb, Kyrgyzstan

Protecting Children in Schools Where Uranium Was Mined For Atomic Bomb, Kyrgyzstan

Jan 10 , 2013

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.

Read

Working with the “enemy”

Oct 03 , 2012

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 -.

Read

One-Stop Shop For Pollution Solutions

Sep 14 , 2012

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.

Read

Blacksmith’s Pollution Tipping Point with Karti Sandilya

Mar 13 , 2012

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.

Read

A Solution To India’s Pollution Nightmare

Jan 30 , 2012

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.

Read

“Miracle” Mercury Recapturing Machine

Aug 04 , 2011

[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.

Read

Read All About it – God’s Paradise Starts to Shed World’s Worst Polluted Label

Mar 18 , 2010

"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.

Read

Innovations and Collaborations this September

Feb 18 , 2010

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.

Read

Back from Mexico – Removing Lead from a Tradition

Jan 28 , 2010

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.

Read

Video of gold miners in Indonesia – Mercury: The Burning Issue

Jan 14 , 2010

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.

Read

Save a Life this Holiday Season

Dec 23 , 2009

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.

Read

Potty Training Pigs and Other Great Solutions

Dec 14 , 2009

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,.

Read

Lessons from the past for Copenhagen

Dec 08 , 2009

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.

Read

All that glitters…

Dec 02 , 2009

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.

Read

The Pollution Blog is online–join us as we take pollution offline!

Oct 19 , 2009

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.

Read