Time, March 19, 1990 v135 n12 p34(2) 
                The blackest town in the world: for miles and miles, everything 
                and creature in his once green valley is veiled in soot. (Copsa 
                Mica, Romania) 
            Full Text: COPYRIGHT Time Inc. 1990 
            "It took several hours for me to realize that I was still standing 
            on the planet earth," says photographer Anthony Suau, recalling his 
            trip last month to Copsa Mica. "It was as if a gigantic bottle of 
            ink had spilled on the town." Copsa Mica's chief industry is tire 
            production, and 24 hours a day its smokestacks heave out noxious, 
            coal-based clouds that cake faces and fingers, cars and houses, 
            grass and trees with endless soot. 
            Babies are born with malformed hearts, children suffer from 
            bronchial asthma, and adults struggle with lead poisoning. Suau's 
            stark photographs are but one glimpse of the anguished land left 
            behind by Nicolae Ceausescu, who put Copsa Mica (pop. 6,000) into 
            industrial overdrive. Situated 150 miles northwest of Bucharest, the 
            town is in the county of Sibiu, which was once governed by the late 
            dictator's son Nicu. Likely to go on trial within the next few 
            months, Nicu could receive life imprisonment if convicted. A more 
            appropriate punishment might be to sentence him to spend the rest of 
            his days in Copsa Mica. 
            CAPTION: Gray clothes. Ashen faces. Black streets. The monochromatic 
            scheme is imposed on Copsa Mica by the town's decrepit factory. The 
            plant, which synthesizes a black powder for making rubber products, 
            has not been upgraded since 1957. Until the revolution in December, 
            the village was mostly shielded from foreign eyes. Now the country 
            hopes to clean up the filth, but the costs must compete with the 
            many other crises burdening Romania. 
             
             Article A8786911