Toxic Pizza

Posted: 27 July 2001

Mauripol is one of the most polluted town in the Ukraine. It is an example of a town that has been created by the steel industry, where pollution related health problems are rife.

However, since the residents of the town depend on the industry for their livelihoods, understandably, they are against factory closures. The film concludes that an investment in cleaner technologies is dependent on a change in the stoic mentality of the local community. The town of Kunda, on Estonia's Baltic coast, is dependent on one factory - a cement works. For decades, Kunda has been almost a by-word for pollution, with tonnes of brown dust thrown out of its kilns every hour. This film follows the changing fortunes of those who live and work there as the ex Soviet factory is taken over by foreign managers, and the transition to a liberal economy begins. Are the promises to safeguard both jobs and the environment in Kunda are being kept?

This multi-award winning 26-minute film produced in 1998, forms part of the Earth Report Series 2 and is available from: