Global Alliance on Health and Pollution

The GAHP (Global Alliance on Health and Pollution) is an international collaborative body working to help low- and middle-income countries deal with toxic hotspots and solve environmental health problems. "The group will work with governments to clean-up toxic hotspots where children, especially, are being poisoned. It could also respond to emergencies such as a recent lead poisoning outbreak in Nigeria that killed hundreds of children."

"This is a larger problem than most people are aware of. Some of the research coming out now finds that the amount of health damage caused by chemicals in toxic hotspots is as significant as that of malaria or tuberculosis." -- Richard Fuller, President, Blacksmith Institute, Secretariat for the GAHP.

The GAHP is the first international alliance of its kind to respond to the threat of toxic pollution on a worldwide scale. The executive committee of the GAHP is based at the World Bank. The Blacksmith Institute, an NGO that works on cleaning up some of the world's worst polluted sites, serves as Secretariat for the GAHP.

The GAHP is made up of an international alliance of members that include the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and UNIDO, among other agencies. All GAHP members have an interest in fighting pollution. By banding together, GAHP members offer access to multiple lines of support and resources like a one-stop shop for pollution solutions.

The Poisoned Poor

(Source: The Poisoned Poor)

Toxic chemicals from industry and mining affect the health of hundreds of millions of people in low- and middle-income countries. Heavy metals, pesticides, solvents, radionuclides and other toxic substances can be found at dangerous levels at thousands of sites around the world, in drinking water, soil, air and food. These chemicals (lead, mercury, chromium, and cadmium, etc.) affect local populations in the poorest towns and neighborhoods, especially children.

A recent study of more than 3,000 toxic sites, funded by the World Bank, European Commission and Asian Development Bank, shows that as many as 200 million people may be affected. A detailed analysis of 373 contaminated sites in India, Indonesia and the Philippines calculated that the amount of disease caused by toxic exposures was similar to that of malaria or outdoor air pollution in those three countries. The impact of these diseases, and the commensurate loss in economic capacity, is enormous.

The majority of acutely toxic sites are caused by local business, many of them artisanal or small-scale. Abandoned sites are also quite common. Surprisingly, international companies are rarely implicated.

Interventions to mitigate these toxic exposures while protecting livelihoods have proven to be manageable, cost-effective, and eminently do-able. Projects in a number of countries, as well as by international agencies such as World Bank, UNIDO and Blacksmith Institute, have produced cost-effective solutions for a wide range of toxics issues.

Aside from the obvious health benefits, solving these problems usually promotes, rather than inhibits, economic growth. Solutions can increase access to valuable resources, such as more efficient recovery of lead from battery recycling, or reclamation of land in urban areas. Technical solutions that offer more profit to small-scale players through improved, toxic-free technology transfer can contribute both to sustainable development and poverty reduction. No less important, enacting solutions now can avoid longer-term economic constraints, such as mental disability and cognitive impairment of children and rising health care costs from illnesses associated with toxic exposures.

The Global Alliance on Health and Pollution (GAHP) offers technical expertise, guidance and resources to help low- and middle-income countries clean up chemicals and wastes legacy toxic hotspots, prevent re-contamination and guard against future pollution.

GAHP members include

• Asian Development Bank (ADB)
• Blacksmith Institute (GAHP Secretariat)
• Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice
• Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
• European Commission
• Fundación Chile
• Intendencia de Montevideo, Government of Uruguay
• Inter American Development Bank (BID)
• Komite Penghapusan Bensin Bertimbel (KPBB – Indonesian NGO)
• La Agencia de Protección Ambiental de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Government of Argentina
• Ministry of Health, Government of the Republic of Tajikistan
• Ministry of Environment, Government of Indonesia
• Ministry of Environment, Government of Madagascar
• Ministry of Environment, Government of Mexico (SEMARNAT)
• Ministry of Environment, Government of Perú (MINAM)
• Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Government of the Philippines (DENR)
• Ministry of Environment, Government of Senegal
• Ministry of Environment, Government of Uruguay, DINAMA
• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
• United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)
• United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
• World Bank (WB)