Say hello to the world’s dirtiest places.
The Blacksmith Institute, a New York-based environmental watchdog, has released the list of the world’s 10 most polluted places and the 30 most dirtiest for 2007. The Philippines’ Meycauayan and Marilao, towns in the province of Bulacan, entered the dirty thirty.
Sumgayit, Azerbaijan
Potentially Affected People: 275,000
Type of Pollutant: Organic chemicals, oil, heavy metals including mercury.
Source of Pollution: Petrochemical and Industrial Complexes
Sumgayit is a manufacturing site of industrial and agricultural chemicals in former Soviet Union. Forty factories are engaged in the production of synthetic rubber, chlorine, detergents, aluminum and pesticides. The city’s inability to monitor and control industrial wastes exposed people to cancer at a staggering incidence rate of 22-51%, the highest in the whole region of Azerbaijan. A high percentage of babies are born prematurely and with genetic defects.
Linfen, China
Potentially Affected People: 3,000,000
Type of Pollutant: Fly-ash, carbon, monoxide, nitrogen, oxides, PM-2.5, PM-10, sulfur dioxide, volatile organic compounds, arsenic, lead.
Source of Pollution: Automobile and industrial emissions
China’s expanding coal industry is centered at Shanxi Province. The region has hundreds of unregulated coal mines that provide about two thirds of the nation’s energy. Linfen is one of the province’s most polluted cities and has the worst air quality according to the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA). Health clinics report alarming number of cases related to respiratory problems like bronchitis, pneumonia and lung cancer among adults and children.
Tianying, China
Potentially Affected People: 140,000
Type of Pollutant: Lead and other heavy metals
Source of Pollution: Mining and processing
Half of country’s lead production is in Tianying, a province in Anhui, China. Numerous cases of lead poisoning, specially among children, has been reported. Local authorities and residents attribute the problem to lack of control measures in firms and small time recycling plants that operate illegally. High levels of lead concentration are also found in air and soil thereby affecting local agriculture.
Sukinda, India
Potentially Affected People: 2,600,000
Type of Pollutant: Hexavalent chromium and other metals
Source of Pollution: Chromite mines and processing
Sukinda Valley is one of the largest open cast chromite ore mines in the world. Ninety seven percent of India’s chromite ore deposits are being produced in this region in the State of Orissa. There are plants that operate without environmental and waste management plans and spread hazardous chemicals through many water pathways. The Brahmani River, the only major water source of residents in the region, is heavily contaminated with hexavalent chromium. 84% to 87% of reported cases of deaths among residents are chromite-related.
Vapi, India
Potentially Affected People: 71,000
Type of Pollutant: Chemicals and heavy metals
Source of Pollution: Industrial estates
Thousands of acres of land are being shared by giant industrial firms and small time players that produce petrochemicals, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, textiles, dyes, fertilizers, leather products, paints and chlor-alkali. Their waste products contain heavy metals, cyanides, pesticides, complex aromatic compounds and other toxic chemicals. Exceedingly high levels of mercury, lead and zinc were found on groundwater and heavy metals on local produce. Vapi, an industrial region in the state of Gujarat, has been declared “critically polluted” by the Central Pollution Board of India in 1994.
La Oroya, Peru
Potentially Affected People: 35,000
Type of Pollutant: Lead, copper, zinc, and sulfur dioxide.
Source of Pollution: Heavy metal mining and processing
La Oroya is a mining town and the site of poly-metallic smelter in Peru. Children and adults suffer high lead levels in their blood due to their prolonged exposure to toxic emissions and wastes coming from the plant. In 1999, ninety nine percent of children living in the area had high blood lead levels. The surrounding towns suffer from critical levels of air pollution
Dzerzhinsk, Russia
Potentially Affected People: 300,000
Type of Pollutant: Chemicals and toxic byproducts, including Sarin, VX gas, etc. Also
lead, phenols.
Source of Pollution: Cold War-era chemical weapons manufacturing
For a long time, Dzerzhinsk used to be Russia’s center for chemical weapons production. After the Cold War, the place continued to manufacture industrial chemicals and opened leaded gasoline factories. Around 300,000 tons of chemical wastes were discovered to have been improperly disposed between 1930 and 1998, resulting to high concentration levels of dioxins and phenol on the groundwater. The Guinness Book of World Records has named Dzerzhinsk the most chemically polluted city in the world.
Norilsk, Russia
Potentially Affected People: 134,000
Type of Pollutant: 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
The city started its mining operations in the 1930s and it has now become the biggest site of the world’s largest heavy metals smelting complex. Norilsk, a city located in Siberia, is one of Russia’s most polluted places where the snow is black, the air tastes of sulfur and the life expectancy for factory workers is 10 years below the Russian average. Air and soil samples have high levels of nickel and copper.
Chernobyl, Ukraine
Potentially Affected People: Initially 5.5 million, now disputed numbers.
Type of Pollutant: Radioactive dust including uranium, plutonium, cesium-137, strontium, and other metals
Source of Pollution: Meltdown of reactor core in 1986
Until now, Chernobyl continues to reap the ugly consequences of the 1986 fiery meltdown considered as the world’s worst nuclear disaster. The explosion at Chernobyl power plant released one hundred times more radiation than the atom bombs that hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Enormous amount of radiation is still trapped inside the power plant itself that a 19-mile exclusion zone has been built around the perimeter and is now uninhabitable. From 1992 to 2002, more than 4000 cases of thyroid cancer were reported among adolescents and children from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
Kabwe, Zambia
Potentially Affected People: 255,000
Type of Pollutant: Lead, cadmium
Source of Pollution: Lead mining and processing
After the discovery of zinc and lead deposits in 1902, mining and smelting companies started operating in Kabwe until 1994. The mining and smelting operations had no means of controlling and treating wastes. After their operations ceased in mid 1990s, they left the city heavily contaminated with lead and metals in both soil and water.
