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It’s definitely not one of the ‘Top Ten’ lists you’re likely to be campaigning for, The Blacksmith Institute, an NGO that works to solve pollution problems in the developing world, has released its second annual list of the World’s Most Polluted Places. This year’s list includes two sites each in China, India and Russia, and one site in Azerbaijan, Peru, Zambia and Ukraine. This threat is affecting more than 12 million people, according to the research done by Blacksmith with Green Cross in Switzerland. Those 12 million people mentioned are well open to respiratory diseases such as asthma, as well as birth defects and premature death.

Many of the sites’ pollution comes from mining of heavy metals like lead and chromium; all of the sites pose serious threats to human health and the environment.

LA OROYA, PERU

Since 1922, adults and children in La Oroya, Peru - a mining town in the Peruvian Andes and the site of a poly-metallic smelter - have been exposed to the toxic emissions and wastes from the plant. Peru’s Clean Air Act cites La Oroya in a list of Peruvian towns suffering from critical levels of air pollution, but action to clean up and curtail this pollution has been delayed for area’s 35,000 inhabitants.

NORILSK, RUSSIA

An industrial city founded in 1935 as a slave labor camp, the Siberian city of Norilsk, Russia is the northernmost major city of Russia and the second largest city (after Murmansk) above the Arctic Circle. Mining and smelting operations began in the 1930s and this city now contains the world’s largest heavy metals smelting complex, where nearly 500 tons each of copper and nickel oxides and two million tons of sulphur dioxide are released annually into the air. The city has been accused of being one of the most polluted places in Russia, where the snow is black, the air tastes of sulfur and the life expectancy for factory workers is 10 years below the Russian average.

A 1999 study found elevated copper and nickel concentrations in soils in as much as a 60 km radius of the city.

LINFEN, CHINA

Shanxi Province is at the heart of China’s enormous and expanding coal industry, providing about two thirds of the nation’s energy. Within this highly polluted region, Linfen has been identified as one of its most polluted cities with residents claiming that they literally choke on coal dust in the evenings. In terms of air quality, the World Bank has stated that 16 out of 20 of the world’s worst polluted cities are in China while the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) has branded Linfen as having the worst air quality in the country. Levels of SO2 and other particulates are many times higher than limits set by the World Health Organization.

SUKINDA, INDIA

Sukinda Valley, in the State of Orissa, contains 97% of India’s chromite ore deposits and one of the largest open cast chromite ore mines in the world. Twelve mines continue to operate without any environmental management plans and over 30 million tons of waste rock are spread over the surrounding areas and the Brahmani riverbanks. Untreated water is discharged by the mines into the river. This area is also flood-prone, resulting in further contamination of the waterways. Approximately 70% of the surface water and 60% of the drinking water contains hexavalent chromium at more than double national and international standards and levels of over 20 times the standard have been recorded.

CHERNOBYL, UKRAINE

The world’s worst nuclear disaster took place on April 26, 1986 when testing in the Chernobyl power plant, 62 miles north of Kiev, triggered a fiery meltdown of the reactor’s core. Thirty people were killed in the accident, 135,000 were evacuated, and one hundred times more radiation was released than by the atom bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Twenty years later, the 19-mile exclusion zone around the plant remains uninhabitable.

KABWE, ZAMBIA

Kabwe, Zambia, is located about 150 kilometres north of the nation’s capital, Lusaka, and is one of six towns in close proximity to the Copperbelt, once Zambia’s thriving industrial base. In 1902, rich deposits of zinc and lead were discovered there. Mining and smelting commenced soon after and ran almost continuously until 1994 without addressing the potential dangers of lead contamination. The mine and smelter are no longer operating but have left a city poisoned by debilitating concentrations of lead dust in the soil and by metals in the water. In one study, the dispersal in soils of lead, cadmium, copper, and zinc extended over a 20 km radius at levels much higher than those recommended by the World Health Organization.

DZERZINSK, RUSSIA

Until the end of the Cold War, Dzerzhinsk was among Russia’s principal production sites of chemical weapons. Today, Dzerzhinsk is still a significant center of Russian chemical manufacturing. Almost 300,000 tons of chemical waste were improperly disposed between 1930 and 1998. In this waste, around 190 identified chemicals have been released into the groundwater. In places, the chemicals have turned the water into a white sludge containing dioxins and high levels of phenol - an industrial chemical that can lead to acute poisoning and death. These levels are reportedly 17 million times the safe limit. The Guinness Book of World Records has named Dzerzhinsk the most chemically polluted city in the world.

VAPI, INDIA

The town of Vapi marks the southern end of India’s “Golden Corridor”, a 400 km belt of industrial estates in the state of Gujarat which includes Nandesari, Ankleshwar, and Vapi. There are over 50 industrial estates in the region including more than 1,000 individual industries that extend over more than a thousand acres. Many of these are chemical manufacturing estates producing petrochemicals, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, textiles, dyes, fertilizers, leather products, paint, and chlor-alkali.

TIANYING, CHINA

Tianying in Anhui province is one of the largest lead production bases in China, with an output accounting for half of the country’s total production. Low-level technologies, illegal operation and the lack of any serious pollution control measures in the firms have caused several severe lead poisoning cases in the region. It is also believed that there are numerous small scale recycling plants in the area, which are notorious for polluting. As a result of these indiscriminate practices, lead processing firms in Tianying have been pressured by local residents and officials to shut down their operations.

SUMGAYIT, AZERBAIJAN

Sumgayit was a major Soviet industrial center housing more than 40 factories manufacturing industrial and agricultural chemicals. These included synthetic rubber, chlorine, aluminium, detergents, and pesticides. While the factories remained fully operational, 70-120,000 tons of harmful emissions were released into the air annually. Factory workers and residents of the city have been exposed to a combination of high-level occupational and environmental pollution problems for several decades.

References: [BlackSmithInstitute] [NationalGeographic], [TimeMagazine]

Extra: [World’s Worst Polluted Places 2006]

Technorati Tags: Pollution, Polluted, Blacksmith Institute, NGO, China, India, Russia, Azerbaijan, Peru, Zambia, Ukraine, Green Cross, Switzerland, Chromium

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