Saturday, 1 March 2008

The World's 10 Most Polluted Places

Summit, Azerbaijan

Potentially affected people: 275,000

Type of pollutants: Organic chemicals, oil, heavy metals, including mercury

Source of pollution: Petrochemical and industrial complexes

A major Soviet industrial center, Summit housed more than 40 factories manufacturing industrial and agricultural chemicals. Cancer rates in Summit are 22% to 51% higher than average incidence rates in the rest of the country.


Lin-fen, China

Potentially affected people: 3,000,000

Type of pollutants: Fly ash, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, volatile organic compounds, arsenic, lead

Source of pollution: Automobile and industrial emissions

Residents of Lin-fen, located in Shanks Province, the heart of China's coal industry, say they choke on coal dust in the evenings. China's State Environmental Protection Administration says Lin-fen has the worst air quality in the country.


Tianjin, China

Potentially affected people: 140,000

Type of pollutants: Lead and other heavy metals

Source of pollution: Mining and processing

Tianjin accounts for half the country's total lead production. Concentrations in air and soils were, respectively, 8.5 times and 10 times national health standards.


Sukinda, India

Potentially affected people: 2,600,000

Type of pollutants: Covalent chromium and other metals

Source of pollution: Chromite mines and processing

Sukinda is home to 97% of India's chromite ore deposits and one of the largest open-cast chromite ore mines in the world. Seventy percent of the area's surface water and 60% of the drinking water contain covalent chromium at more than double national and international standards.


Vapi, India

Potentially affected people: 71,000

Type of pollutants: Chemicals and heavy metals

Source of pollution: Industrial estates

Due to production of petrochemicals, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, textiles, dyes, fertilizers, leather products, paint and chlor-alkali, mercury in Vapi's groundwater is reported to be 96 times higher than the World Health Organization's health standards. In addition, local produce can contain up to 60 times more heavy metals (copper, chromium, cadmium, zinc, nickel, lead, iron) than non-contaminated produce in control groups.


La Oroya, Peru

Potentially affected people: 35,000

Type of pollutants: Lead, copper, zinc and sulfur dioxide

Source of pollution: Heavy metal mining and processing

A mining town in the Peruvian Andes, La Oroya is the site of a poly-metallic smelter owned by the Missouri-based Doe Run Corp. Ninety-nine percent of children living in and around La Oroya have blood lead levels that exceed acceptable limits, according to Peruvian officials. Blacksmith says Doe Run has pledged to curb its toxic emissions.


Dzerzinsk, Russia

Potentially affected people: 300,000

Type of pollutants: Chemicals and toxic byproducts, including Sarin, VX gas, etc. Also lead, phenols

Source of pollution: Cold War-era chemical weapons manufacturing

A significant chemical-manufacturing center, the city was also home to a leaded gasoline factory that produced TEL, a potent toxin. Almost 300,000 tons of chemical waste were improperly disposed of between 1930 and 1998. The Guinness Book of World Records calls Dzerzhinsk the most chemically polluted city in the world.



Norilsk, Russia

Potentially affected people: 134,000

Type of pollutants: Air pollution--particulates, sulfur dioxide, heavy metals (nickel, copper, cobalt, lead, selenium), phenols, hydrogen sulfide

Source of pollution: Major nickel and related metals mining and processing

An industrial city founded in 1935 as a slave labor camp, Norilsk contains the world's largest heavy metals smelting complex, releasing nearly 500 tons each of copper and nickel oxides and 2 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the air. Reports say the snow is black, the air tastes of sulfur and the life expectancy for factory workers is 10 years below the Russian average.


Chernobyl, Ukraine

Potentially affected people: Initially 5.5 million; now disputed numbers

Type of pollutants: Radioactive dust including uranium, plutonium, cesium-137, strontium and other metals

Source of pollution: Meltdown of reactor core, April 26, 1986

A fiery meltdown of the Chernobyl reactor's core released 100 times more radiation than the atom bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Twenty years later, the 19-mile exclusion zone around the plant remains uninhabitable.


Kabwe, Zambia

Potentially affected people: 255,000

Type of pollutants: Lead, cadmium

Source of pollution: Lead mining and processing

Dispersal in soils of lead, cadmium, copper and zinc extends over a 20-kilometer radius at levels much higher than those recommended by the World Health Organization. In addition to contaminated water, workers live amid dry, dusty, lead-laced soils. On average, children's blood lead levels in Kabwe are five to 10 times the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's permissible maximum and in many cases are close to those regarded as potentially fatal.


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