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About Pure Earth India

Pure Earth has been active in India since 2004. Since then, Pure Earth and its local partners have identified 716 contaminated sites, and completed rapid screening assessments at 500 of these. Pure Earth has also conducted a number of risk-reduction projects across India and has engaged with the government on a variety of pollution issues. In recent years, Pure Earth’s focus in India has centered on lead (Pb) contamination.

Pure Earth is currently developing non-assessment activities in India that directly result from our in-depth assessment of lead contamination through the TSIP. These activities are designed to advance a national effort to further formalize the lead-acid battery recycling industry and substantially reduce the volume of lead that enters the environment and the bodies of children in surrounding communities. These activities include a risk-reduction intervention in a community in Bihar State where informal battery manufacturing next to an elementary school has poisoned local children, a program to collectivize informal battery workers to improve their operations and reduce lead emissions, a lead source apportionment study to evaluate the relative contribution of informal battery recycling to elevated blood-lead levels, and a national program to improve the effectiveness of India’s Battery Management and Handling Rules.

One of the primary sources of lead poisoning for children in India is the informal recycling of used lead-acid batteries (ULAB), primarily car batteries. In fact, poor people in almost every urban center in the developing world can be found practicing this toxic livelihood, often in back yards and community spaces, unknowingly poisoning their children and families on a daily basis. Nationally, lead poisoning is widespread among India’s children. Existing studies estimate that Indian children under 12 have a mean blood lead level (BLL) of 10 µg/dl. It is estimated that diminished IQ in lead-poisoned children results in a loss of $236.1 billion (12.5% of India’s GDP) in economic productivity every year.

With funding from USAID, the European Commission, ERM and philanthropists, Pure Earth is expanding efforts to stop childhood lead poisoning.

International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week

October 24-30th, 2021

Stay up to date with our work:

• India Had Most Pollution Deaths In 2019, Over 23.5 Lakh: Lancet Study 
  

  NDTV May 18th, 2022

• Immunity boosting turmeric: Is Lead a concern?
  

  Daily Star Dec 27th, 2020

• Dangerous spices: why India’s cooking powders pose a risk of lead poisoning
  

  The Guardian Dec 23rd, 2020

• Indian Architect Has Created An Algae Wall To Purify Polluted Water Without Harmful Chemicals
  

  India Times Oct 15th, 2019

• These algae tiles can turn any building into a pollution-scrubbing machine
  

  Fast Company Oct 14th, 2019

• Cleaning Up Bhopal
  

  The Chemical Engineer Apr 1st, 2015

• Abandoned asbestos mines still a hazard in India
  

  Associated Press Dec 22nd, 2014

• Abandoned asbestos mines still a hazard in India
  

  New York Times Dec 22nd, 2014

• Ananta Aspen Centre and WWF India holds public session on Toxic pollution
  

  ANI News Feb 19th, 2014

• Worms Clean Toxic Metals From Indian Soil
  

  Huffington Post Oct 8th, 2012

• BJD youth wing seeks job for locals at Kalinganagar steel plants
  

  India Times May 11th, 2012

Read more about our work in India:

• Bihar, India: How we celebrated a community, and helped them take action on lead poisoning (March 2019)
• Looking For Lead? No Problem! (June 2017)
• In Bihar, Toxic Lead 150 Times Over Limit (Feb 2016)
• India’s Lead Problem: More Than Just Instant Noodles (June 2015)
• Two Studies Reveal the Risks of India’s Unseen Pollution Menace (Nov 2014)
• Report from India: Lead Battery Recycling in the Right and Wrong Way (Feb 2014)
• Paying for Pollution Cleanup in India with a Small Benefit (May 2013)
• India’s Amazing Pollution Story (April 2013)
• A Solution To India’s Pollution Nightmare (Jan 2012)
• Pink Crocodiles and the New Front Against Pollution in India (Mar 2010)
• Off to India to Speak about Pollution and Economic Development (Mar 2010)