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.
External links and sources
Town's official website (http://www.copsa-mica.ro/) (in Romanian)
Tourist guide to the town (http://www.mytravelguide.com/city-guide/Europe-&-Russia/Romania/Copsa-Mica), with background on its polluted history
Sometra SA (http://www.sometra.ro/), one of the factories responsible for Copşa Mică pollution
1999 article about a visit to Copşa Mică (http://www.salon.com/wlust/feature/1999/03/23feature.html) in Salon.com
Information from 1999 on the watershed (http://www.enc.edu/org/science/Romania6.html) of the Târnava Mare River
1993 project (http://www.unido.org/Data/Project/Project.cfm?c=4578) funded by UNIDO to assist in the establishment of cleaner production practices at Sometra
CopsaMica, a typical Romanian town, represents the standard of the martyr towns, victim of pollution and the place where I grew up.
Not long ago, in CopsaMica there were 2 great industrial factories: The metallurgic factory of non-ferrous metallurgy (M.F.N.M) and the plant “Carbosin”, producer of fl smoke with its multiple use.
CopsaMica, a small town in Transylvania [at the center of each satellite photo], was considered one the five worst polluted industrial sites of the communist world.
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