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COPSA MICA - ROMANIA
Copsa Mica is a
town in Sibiu county, Transylvania, Romania, located north of Sibiu,
33km east of Blaj, and 12km southwest of Medias. According to the town's
website, its population in 2000 was 5189, down 23% from its population
in 1989, the year communism collapsed in Romania .
The town is best known for its status (in the 1990s) as one of the most
polluted in Europe. This was due to the emissions of two factories in
the area:
One, open from 1936 to 1993, produced carbon black for dyes; its
emissions permeated the area for nearly sixty years, leaving soot on homes,
trees, animals, and everything else in the area. The stain from these
decades of deposits are still visible.
The other source of the pollution, less visible but with even more serious
effects to the health of the town's residents, was Sometra, a smelter whose
emissions has contributed to significant higher incidents of lung disease,
impotence, and a life expectancy nine years below Romania's average.
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