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Nine Most Polluted Places in the World  
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Tags: polluted, places, world, travel, avoid, bad, globe

According to the Blacksmith Institute, these are the top 10 most polluted places in the entire world:

1.	Chernobyl, Ukraine — The fallout from the world's worst nuclear power accident continues to accumulate, affecting as many as 5.5 million people and leading to a sharp rise in thyroid cancer. The incident has also blighted the economic prospects of surrounding areas and nations. "Belarus is very agricultural," says Stephan Robinson, a director at Green Cross Switzerland, an environmental group that collaborated on the report. "Through Chernobyl, they lost access to world markets for their produce."
2.	Dzerzinsk, Russia — A center of Cold War chemical manufacturing, the city's 300,000 residents have one of the lowest life expectancies in the world thanks to waste injected directly into the ground. "Average life expectancy is roughly 45 years," Robinson says. "Fifteen to 20 years less than the Russian average and about half a Westerner's."
3.	Kabwe, Zambia — The second largest city in this southern African country was home to one of the world's largest lead smelters until 1987. As a result, the entire city is contaminated with the heavy metal, which can cause brain and nerve damage in children and fetuses. "Measurements of children's blood levels of lead average over 50 micrograms per deciliter and some were over 100," Fuller says. "For every 10 points above 10 micrograms per deciliter that your blood level goes up, your IQ drops."
4.	La Oroya, Peru — Although this is one of the smallest communities on the list (population 35,000) it is also one of the most heavily polluted due to lead, copper and zinc mining by U.S.-based Doe Run mining company.
5.	Linfen, China — a city in the heart of China's coal region in Shanxi Province, its three million inhabitants choke on dust and drink arsenic that leaches from the fossil fuel. In addition, "it is difficult to see," Robinson says, "the air is heavily polluted."
6.	Norilsk, Russia — This city above the Arctic Circle contains the world's largest metal smelting complex and, therefore, some of the world's worst smog. "There is so much pollution going into the air from this place that there is no living piece of grass or shrub within 30 kilometers of the city," Fuller says. "Contamination [with heavy metals] has been found as much as 60 kilometers away."
7.	Sukinda, India — Home to one of the world's largest chromite mines—used to make steel stainless, among other things—and 2.6 million people, the waters of this valley contain carcinogenic hexavalent chromium compounds courtesy of 30 million tons of waste rock lining the Brahmani River. "Hexavalent chromium is very toxic and very mobile," notes David Hanrahan, Blacksmith's London-based director of global programs.
8.	Tianying, China — The center of Chinese lead production, this town of 160,000 qualifies as one of the eight most polluted areas in the country, according to the Chinese government. Lead concentrations in the air and soil are 8.5 to 10 times above national health standards and lead dusts local crops at levels 24 times higher than such health standards.
9.	Vapi, India — This town at the end of India's industrial belt in the state of Gujarat houses the dumped remnant waste of more than 1,000 manufacturers, including petrochemicals, pesticides, pharmaceuticals and other chemicals. "The companies treat wastewater and get most of the muck out," Hanrahan says. "But there's nowhere to put the muck, so it ends up getting dumped."

Lister: Pratt
Source: ScientificAmerican

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