Sunday, June 20, 2010

Top 10 Most Polluted Cities in the World

Here’s a list of most polluted cities in the world. As We know various kind of industry and human activity that don’t respect to the environment have destructed some places in the world. I guess you will never want to visit these cities. So Let’s take a look at those most polluted cities in the world and learn from theme

10. La Oroya, Peru

Lead is a contaminant that appears most frequently on Blacksmith list. In La Oroya, a mining town in the Andes Mountains, Peru, 99% of children have blood levels that exceed the limit that can be tolerated, because the influence of the smelter that has polluted the city since 1922. Average levels of lead, according to a survey in 1999, is three times the WHO limit. Even after active emissions from the smelter is reduced, which issued will remain the lead in La Oroya’s soil for centuries, and there is no plan to clean it. The number of people potentially affected is around 35,000.

most polluted cities in the world La Oroya, Peru

La Oroya, Peru

9. Yapi, India

If India is on the overall environment more healthy compared to the giant neighbor China, it is because India is growing much more slowly. But that has changed, starting in towns like Vapi, which sits at the southern end of 400-km-long industrial belt. For citizens of Vapi, the cost has grown so severe: mercury levels in groundwater in the city reported 96 times higher than WHO safety levels, and heavy metals contained in the air and local products. The number of people potentially affected is around 71 000.

most polluted cities in the world Yapi India

Yapi,India

8. Norilsk, Rusia

Norilsk was founded in 1935 as a Siberian slave labor camps, and life there has pretty much gone down since. There’s a lot of Movers go out from the city as the bad city condition. The city is the home of the world’s largest heavy metal smelting complex, more than 4 million tons of cadmium, copper, tin, nickel, arsenic, selenium and zinc are released into the air each year. Air samples exceed the maximum allowance for both copper and nickel, and deaths from respiratory diseases is much higher than in Russia overall. Within 30 miles (48 km) from the nickel smelter there is no single tree can life. It’s just empty land. The number of people potentially affected is around 134,000.

most polluted cities in the world Norilsk, Rusia

Norilsk, Rusia

7. Tianying, China

Tianying accounts for more than half of China’s tin production. Poor technology and worse regulation, much of the toxic metal ends in Tianying’s land and water, and then an effect on the flow of blood from children, which can cause lowered IQ. Some examples of Wheat has been found to contain lead levels up to 24 times the standard Chinese. Total people potentially affected is around 140,000.

most polluted cities in the world Tianying,China

Tianying,China


6. Kabwe, Zambia

When the rich tin deposits were discovered near Kabwe in 1902, Zambia was a British colony called Northern Rhodesia, and little attention is given to the impact of toxic metals that may be indigenous in Zambia. Unfortunately, there has been almost no progress in the decades since, and although the mine and smelter are no longer operating, lead levels in Kabwe are astronomical. On average, lead concentrations in children is five to 10 times the permissible level of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and can even be high enough to kill. The number of people potentially affected is around 255,000.

most polluted cities in the world Kabwe, Zambia

Kabwe, Zambia

5. Sumqayit, Azerbaijan

Another legacy of the Soviet Union that ignore the environment. Stalin once boasted that he could correct mistakes Sumqayit nature’s. A lot of factories, while they are operational, released as much as 120,000 tons of harmful emissions, including mercury, into the air each year. Most factories have closed, but still pollutants – and there is no action to take responsibility for them. The number of people potentially affected is around 275,000.

most polluted cities in the world Sumqayit Azerbaijan

Sumqayit, Azerbaijan

4. Dzerzhinsk, Rusia

The legacy of the Cold War weapons programs has left environmental blackspots throughout the former Soviet Union, but Dzerzhinsk is by far the worst in terms of environmental cleanliness. The city environmental agency estimates that nearly 300000 tonnes of chemical waste, including some of the most dangerous Neurotoxins known to man, dumped in Dzerzhinsk between 1930 and 1998. Dioxin infected parts of the city water and phenol at levels reportedly 17 million times the safe limit. Guinness Book of World Records named Dzerzhinsk the most chemically polluted city on Earth, and in 2003 with the death rate exceeds the birth rate by 260%. The number of people potentially affected is around 300,000.

most polluted cities in the world Dzerzhinsk Rusia

Dzerzhinsk, Rusia

3. Sukinda, India

If you saw Erin Brockovich, you will know what is hexavalent chromium. It is wicked heavy metal that is used for the production of stainless steel and leather tanning and very carcinogenic if inhaled or swallowed. Sukinda, is the largest open player of chromite ore mines in the world, 60% of the drinking water contains hexavalent chromium at levels more than twice of international standard. Indian health group estimated that 84.75% of deaths in the mining areas, where there are no regulations on the diseases associated with chromite. There’s no effort to clean up contamination. The number of people potentially affected is around 2.6 million.

most polluted cities in the world Sukinda India

Sukinda, India

2. Linfen, Cina

The city is located in Shanxi province that in fact is the heart of China’s coal, and the hills around Linfen is decorated with mining, legal and illegal, and the air filled with burning coal. Do not hang your laundry, because it’ll turn black before drying. China’s State Environmental Protection Agency says that Linfen has the worst air in the country, which is saying something, considering that the World Bank has reported that 16 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world are Chinese. The number of people potentially affected: 3 million

most polluted cities in the world Linfen China

Linfen, China

1. Chernobyl, Ukraine

When Chernobyl reactor exploded on April 26, 1986, a damaged plant released 100 times more radiation into the air rather than the effects of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Today the 19-mi (30-km) exclusion zone around the plant remains occupied, and between 1992 and 2002 more than 4000 cases of thyroid cancer cases diagnosed among Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian children who live in the fall zone. That’s the largest industrial accident in the world. Fortunately, work is being done to prevent further radiation spill from a nuclear plant ruins. The number of people potentially affected was initially estimated at 5.5 million people, but it’s now debatable.

most polluted cities in the world Chernobyl, Ukraine

Chernobyl, Ukraine