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10 Most Polluted Places in the World

By admin ⋅ July 25, 2007 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment ⋅ 216 views

A US-based environmental charity has established that are the 10 most polluted places on Earth. The Blacksmith Institute said that heavy metals are the main factors that affect up to 1 billion people. The kinds of pollution in these areas not only lead to cancers, birth defects, mental retardation and life expectancies approaching medieval levels, but are also often found all around the globe.

Pollution and environmental issues can account for up to 20 percent of deaths in developing countries. “The worst problem is the damage it does to children’s development … and that damages the future of the countries,”said Blacksmith Director Richard Fuller in a telephone interview.

Dzerzhinsk, Russia is one of the places mentioned in the report, where chemicals weapons were made during the Cold War and where the average life expectancy is 42 for men and 47 for women.

“Norilsk in Russia is also just a horror story,” Fuller said about an industrial city founded as a slave labor camp in 1935. “Smelters with no pollution control: nickel, copper, lead, cadmium. No pollution control. Just an awful place.”

Inhabitants in Linfen, China, choke on coal dust in the evening while Haina in the Dominican Republic is severely affected by lead contamination. Ranipet, India has groundwater with hexavalent chromium making water sting like a bee. Mailuu-Suu, Kyrgyzstan has 2 million cubic meters of radioactive mining waste that threatens one of the most populated areas in Asia.

La Oroya, Peru, is infected with toxic emissions of lead, while Rudnaya Pristan, Russia is the place where pollution lead to child blood lead levels eight to 20 times maximum allowable U.S. levels. Kabwe, Zambia, is in the same situation, having child blood levels of lead are five to 10 times the allowable EPA maximum.

Chernobyl, Ukraine, is perhaps the most infamous site in the list, with a nuclear meltdown that occurred 20 years ago. Below you’ll find a map of these pollution hot-spots: