Pure Earth

Pure Earth (originally Blacksmith Institute) is a New York City–based international nonprofit founded in 1999 that works to identify and address pollution-related issues in low- and middle-income countries. Pure Earth's work focuses on two key pollutants: lead and mercury. The Global Lead Program works on reducing lead poisoning from three key sources poisoning millions of children in low- and middle-income countries: the unsafe and informal recycling of used lead-acid batteries, lead-glazed pottery, and contaminated spices. The Global Mercury Program works to reduce mercury from artisanal and small scale gold mining communities around the world by training miners to go mercury-free, and helping miners in the Amazon rainforest restore land damaged by mining. Pure Earth is known for the Toxic Sites Identification Program, a global movement to find and clean up some of the world's most toxic sites. The program has trained over 500 pollution investigators and 90 government representatives worldwide, who have identified and mapped over 5000 toxic hotspots in communities around the world. The data they collect has built an "unprecedented public database of toxic sites" that helps local communities and governments plan clean up to protect residents. Pure Earth is also known for initiating the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution, which in turn led to the formation of The Lancet Commission on pollution and health and the publication of a report from the Lancet Commission on health and pollution concluding in 2017 that pollution is the largest environmental cause of death in the world, killing three times more people than AIDS/HIV, tuberculosis and malaria combined, and 15 times more than war and other forms of violence. In 2015, Pure Earth advocated for broadening the scope of toxic pollution addressed in the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. In 2020, Pure Earth and UNICEF issued an urgent call to protect 800 million children poisoned by lead, following the publication of their joint report: The Toxic Truth: Children’s exposure to lead pollution undermines a generation of potential.