Brazilian communities affected by the aluminum industry gathered in the city of Sao Luiz in the northern state of Maranhao at the end of March to discuss the environmental and health impacts of bauxite mining and aluminum refining. The gathering was organized by the Brazilian NGO Carajas Forum which monitors the social and environmental impact […]
News Archive
Welcome to the Fluoride Action Network News Archive. The FAN News Archive serves as an historical repository for fluoride news stories, positive or negative. Since FAN catalogs all news stories on fluoride, our news section remains a reliable database of all published fluoride news.
Our news database is categorized by country, state/province, and industry. This collection of articles is constantly being updated with the most recent global news on fluoride-related issues and events.
Speaking out against aluminum giants
More than 60 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) came together in this northern Brazilian city to discuss the impact on human health and the environment of bauxite mining and the production of aluminum by multinational consortiums in the country’s Amazon jungle region. Cancer and a long list of other occupational hazards, the contamination of waterways, air pollution, […]
The fight to escape from a black hole
Victoria Griffith visits a Brazilian city that was shut down because of excessive pollution levels Just 35 miles south of Sao Paulo the highway to the Brazilian coast descends from a mountain paradise of trees and waterfalls to what looks like a futuristic nightmare – the city of Cubatao. Metal chimneys belching fire and smoke […]
Brazil hopes to rescue forest with seed drops
HELICOPTERS began dropping two tons of seeds this week on Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, which has been reduced by land speculation, and some of the world’s worst airborne pollution, to five per cent of its size 20 years ago. The forest once covered vast tracts of eastern Brazil, and rivalled the Amazon in its unique biological […]
Brazilian city battles pollution
Cubatao, Brazil – Quality of air, water improves in ‘valley of death’ Thanks to perhaps the biggest anti-pollution program ever mounted in Brazil, this industrial city nestled in the Serra do Mar mountains is on the way to losing its reputation as ”the valley of death.” With the Sao Paulo State environmental agency, Cetesb, mandating […]
Citizens of Brazil’s Valley of Death breathing easier after two years of cleanup
CUBATAO, Brazil – People are breathing cleaner air in this industrial city, long considered one of the world’s most polluted and known in Brazil as the Valley of Death. The United Nations-affiliated World Health Organization and local ecological groups say that a $500-million government cleanup program has produced substantial improvements in pollution levels in Cubatao, […]
Cleanup for Brazil’s Valley of Death
Sao Paulo — For years, the area around the Brazilian town of Cubatao — with 23 petrochemical companies operating 111 plants in the industrial heart of the state of Sao Paulo — has been referred to as Vale da Morte, or the “Valley of Death,” because of the high levels of air, water and soil […]
In Acrid Brazilian Factory Zone, A Fear of Disaster
CUBATAO, Brazil – The factories on this swampland have turned the nearby town into a place of superlatives: in Cubatao, pollutants in the rain have reached some of the highest levels known in the world; the air is considered unfit for humans on a record number of days, and more cases of cancer, stillbirths and […]
Brazil: “No More Cubataos”
RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 7 – “No more Cubataos” is now the war cry of Brazilian environmentalists, who insist that Brazil’s main petrochemical center and most polluted city not become a model for other industrial districts. The environmental movement is particularly strong in Cotia, 18 miles from Sao Paulo, and in Araucaria, 12 miles from […]
Perils of developing too fast: Brazil’s case study of pollution
Cubatao, Brazil – A visitor’s first impression of this town 20 miles southeast of Sao Paulo is smoke. It hovers in soup-thick clouds – of fluoride gas, sulfur dioxide, ammonia, and carbon monoxide – that often blot out the sun for days. The next thing the visitor notices is the stench, a suffocating smell of […]