Blacksmith Institute Fact Sheet

About Blacksmith Institute

Blacksmith Institute is an international not-for-profit organization dedicated to solving life-threatening pollution issues in the developing world. A global leader in this field, Blacksmith addresses a critical need to identify and clean up the world's worst polluted places. Blacksmith focuses on areas where human health, especially that of women and children, is most at risk.

Based in New York, Blacksmith works cooperatively around the world in partnerships that include governments, the international community, NGOs and local agencies to design and implement innovative, low-cost solutions to save lives. Since 1999, Blacksmith has completed over 30 projects; Blacksmith is currently engaged in over 40 projects in 19 countries.

Blacksmith Institute is also known for its annual World's Worst reports; for the creation of the Blacksmith Index (used around the world to rate levels of health risk from pollution); and for the Blacksmith database, the only resource of its kind, which currently documents over 600 of the world's worst polluted sites. In 2008, Blacksmith began efforts to create the global Health and Pollution Fund to finance the cleanup and elimination of legacy pollution in the developing world.

More information: Blacksmith Institutional Press Kit and Press Releases; Blacksmith Newsletters; Blacksmith Annual Reports.

Expert Resources

Interviews:

Please contact us to speak with Blacksmith Institute experts, including members of our Technical Advisory Board, for topics including:

Global pollution problems and solutions
public health issues/pollution and disease
lead poisoning
worldwide mercury pollution
air and water pollution
e-waste and industrial waste
the worst polluted places in the world
the world's worst pollution problem
Blacksmith projects around the world

Field Access:

Field Access to Blacksmith projects around the world may be available on request.

Images:

Download photographs here (credit: Blacksmith Institute). More images and videos/B-rolls are available on request.

Research Resources:

* Read Blacksmith's World's Worst Report

* See Key Blacksmith Programs

* Search Blacksmith's database by pollutant, country or region.

* Read some of our Success Stories

Project Highlights

Since 1999, Blacksmith has completed over 50 projects; Blacksmith is currently engaged in over 40 projects in 19 countries. Highlights include:

* Health and Pollution Fund

* Global Inventory Project

* Lead Poisoning and Car Batteries Project

* Artisanal Gold Mining (Mercury poisoning)

In-Country Representation

Countries include Cambodia, China, the Dominican Republic, Guinea, India, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mozambique, Nepal, the Philippines, Russia, Senegal, Tanzania, Thailand, and Zambia.

Headquarters: New York City, London.

Blacksmith Focus

Human Health

Blacksmith works in the worst polluted places in the world, where the population is most at risk. These are places where babies are born with birth defects, where children have lost 30 to 40 IQ points and suffer from severe metal retardation, and where most adults don't hope to make it past their 45^th birthdays because they've developed lung, throat, and thyroid cancers.

Implementation:

Blacksmith's focus is on implementing solutions. Blacksmith does not function as a watchdog. Co-operation is key.

Cost-Effectiveness

Blacksmith's method of remediating highly polluted sites is one of the most cost effective methods to improve life expectancy in the developing world.

Blacksmith projects range in cost between $1 and $50 per year of life gained.

The cost to save a human life through the removal of hazardous pollution on Blacksmith projects can be as little as $42*.

* Study reviewed by the centers for children's health and environment at Johns Hopkins University, Hunter College and the Mt. Sinai School of Public Health.

Filling a Crucial Gap

Blacksmith is the leading organization active in toxics cleanup on a global scale.

Most current international programs regulate the production and use of select toxins (rather than the mitigation or remediation of existing pollution), and the trans-boundary movement of waste. There is little else taking place with respect to toxic pollution in the developing world.

Success Stories

In Muthia Village, in Gujarat, India, 60,000 tons of toxic wastes with heavy metals have been dumped over the past ten years by industrial plants. The region has extremely high rates of cancer, premature deaths and stillbirths. Blacksmith funded a pilot project to decontaminate the soil using worms that concentrate the heavy metals in their bodies. The project has been a success and is being expanded.

In Rudnaya Pristan, Russia, lead pollution from a now abandoned lead smelter has contaminated the soil throughout the region. The local population shows clear evidence of neurological damage, contract lung and stomach cancer at five times the prevailing rate, and blood cancers at 33 times the prevailing rate. Blacksmith initiated a project to replace contaminated soils in schoolyards with clean soils, and is monitoring the decline in blood lead levels as the project makes an impact. Cleanup work continues schoolyard by schoolyard.

Pollution Facts

* Over a billion people are affected by pollution worldwide according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank.

* The WHO estimates that 20% of deaths in the developing world direct ly result from pollution.

* Find out about the top ten worst pollution problems in the world

* Toxic pollution has been almost totally eliminated in developed countries with efforts such as the Superfund initiative in the US (and similar programs in other OECD countries), and the removal of lead from gasoline and asbestos from buildings.

* In the developing world, however, the problem is growing because of the drive to industrialize and feed global consumption. Sustainable Globalization should be a shared responsibility and goal.

* Pollution cleanup is one part of the global green solution. However, despite growing alarm over environmental issues, driven by legitimate fears about global warming and climate change, the problem of pollution is falling through the cracks.