Blacksmith Institute
Formation	1999
Type	International NGO
Location	New York City, New York
President	Richard Fuller
Website	http://www.blacksmithinstitute.org

The Blacksmith Institute, founded in 1999, is a New York City based organization supporting pollution-related environmental projects. Blacksmith works cooperatively with members of civil society, donors and governments; providing strategic, technical, and financial support to local champions working for the betterment of their communities.

The priority of Blacksmith is to work in locations throughout the developing world where human health is most affected by pollution. Its programs involve a multi-step process of: identifying polluted places in the developing world, with nominations received from members of the international community and through the internet; Assessing the health risks at those locations; and designing and implementing a remediation strategy tailored to the specifics of the site in question, using local champions to implement the project in a cooperative fashion.

One project of the Blacksmith Institute is Polluted Places Initiative, which identifies polluted sites throughout the world by means of an online nomination process.^[1]

In 2008 Blacksmith Institute released a joint report with Green Cross Switzerland called The World's Worst Pollution Problems. The following year, the groups issued another joint report highlighting successful anti-pollution efforts, 12 Cases of Cleanup and Success. Both reports are available for download at www.worstpolluted.org[1].

[edit] Top ten world's worst pollution problems

• Artisanal Gold Mining
• Contaminated Surface Water
• Indoor Air Pollution
• Industrial Mining Activities
• Groundwater Contamination
• Metals Smelting and Processing
• Radioactive Waste and Uranium Mining
• Untreated Sewage
• Urban Air Quality
• Used Lead Acid Battery Recycling

[edit] Most polluted places

As of September 2007, the Institute lists the following as the world's ten most polluted places (in alphabetical order by country):^[2]

[edit] Top ten most polluted places

• Sumqayit, Azerbaijan
• Linfen, China
• Tianying, China
• Sukinda, India
• Vapi, India
• La Oroya, Peru
• Dzerzhinsk, Russia
• Norilsk, Russia
• Chernobyl, Ukraine
• Kabwe, Zambia

[edit] Also mentioned

• Godwin, Kenya
• Matanza-Riachuelo River Basin, Argentina
• Hazaribagh, India
• DongYangHuaxi, China
• Lanzhou, China
• Urumqi, China
• Wanshan, China
• Haina, Dominican Republic
• Oriente, Ecuador
• Mahad Industrial Estate, India
• Ranipet, India
• Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan
• Maluu-Suu, Kyrgyzstan
• Mexico City, Mexico
• Huancavelica, Peru
• Meycauayan, Philippines
• Marilao, Philippines
• Bratsk, Russia
• Chita, Russia
• Magnitogorsk, Russia
• Rudnaya Pristan, Russia

The Institute has operated in China since 2002.^[3]

[edit] Areas of cleanup and success

• Phasing out leaded gasoline
• Ending chemical weapons
• Improving indoor air - Accra, Ghana
• Preventing mining pollution - Candelaria, Chile
• Lowering radioactivity - Chernobyl, Ukraine
• Cleaning urban air - Delhi, India
• Removing lead - Haina, Dominican Republic
• Recapturing mercury - Kalimantan, Indonesia
• Reducing lead - Rudnaya Pristan, Russia
• Removing DDT - Old Korogwe, Tanzania
• Restoring a waterway - Shanghai, China
• Removing arsenic - West Bengal, India

[edit] World's "Dirty 30"

In its 2007 report, The World’s Worst Polluted Places issued on September 16, the Blacksmith Institute included Meycauayan and Marilao in Bulacan, Philippines, in the list of the world’s thirty most polluted places in the developing world.The World’s Worst Polluted Places It stated: "Industrial waste is haphazardly dumped into the Marilao, Meycauayan, and Obando River system, a source of drinking and agricultural water supplies for the 250,000 people living in and around” the Meycauayan-Marilao area."^[4]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Blacksmith Institute
• World's Worst Polluted Places