Ever wondered which cities are the biggest polluters in the world? Here is the answer for your curiosity. The Blacksmith Institute has compiled the list of most polluted cities in the world. The report not only reveals the biggest contributing cities to the pollution but also demonstrates the various ways in which the cities are being polluted. According to the report out of 20 cities, 16 are from China in terms of bad air quality but when it comes to the overall pollution only one Chinese city has been included in the list.
1. Dzerzinsk, Russia
Number of people potentially affected: 300,000
Type of pollutant: Chemicals and toxic byproducts, including sarin and VX gas
Source of pollution: Cold War-era chemical weapons manufacturing
2. Linfen, China
Number of people potentially affected: 3,000,000
Type of pollutant: Coal and particulates
Source of pollution: Automobile and industrial emissions
3. Kabwe, Zambia
Number of people potentially affected: 255,000
Type of pollutant: Lead and cadmium
Source of pollution: Lead mining and processing
4. Norilsk, Russia
Number of people potentially affected: 134,000
Type of pollutant: Air pollution — particulates, sulfur dioxide, heavy metals, phenols
Source of pollution: Major nickel and metal mining and processing
5. Haina, Dominican Republic
Population: 85,465
Worst Feature: Heavy Metal Pollution
Best Feature: There’s gold in them there Haina River
6. Chernobyl, Ukraine
On 26 April 1986, reactor # 4 at the Chernobyl (Chornobyl) Nuclear Power Station, 100 km north from Kiev, blew up during a routine daily operation. Nearly nine tons of radioactive material – 90 times as much as the Hiroshima bomb – were hurled into the sky. Winds over the following days, mostly blowing north and west, carried, fallout into Belarus, as well as Russia, Poland and the Baltic region.
The radioactive fallout affected 23% of Belarus, with 4,8% of Ukrainian territory and 0,5% of Russian land exposed. About 135,00 people were evacuated from a 30-km radius around the plant, with the peripheral areas remaining at a high risk of radioactive exposure. The reactor was enclosed in a concrete-and-steel sarcophagus. Over the following years about 600,000 people known as “the liquidators” worked on clean-up operations inside the 30-km zone.
7. La Oroya, Peru
Metals from the local smelting plant are the key pollutant here. The plant releases gases from processing toxins such as arsenic, lead, copper, zinc, manganese, and sulfur diozide.
Area Affected
There are currently 35,000 people in the town of La Oroya being affected by the factory.
About
8. Ranipet, IndiaRanipet, India
Population: 350,000
Worst Feature: Heavy Metal Contaminated Ground Water
Best Feature: Home of The Vellore Institute of Technology
Ranipet, India holds the dubious distinction of having the highest levels of heavy metal contamination in their ground water in the world, and is on the Top 10 List of The Worlds Most Polluted places, due to being the long time home of India�s leather tanning industry.
The mortality rate and life expectancies in the town are worse than that of Medieval Europe. Asthma, mental retardation and other birth defects are high among children. If immediate or early death does not come form drinking the poisoned water, cancers and other health complications will surely result.
Indian farmers who must try to eek out a living growing something in this toxic soil, say that only 1 in 5 crops planted does not fail, and that the foul smells which come from the very water they use to irrigate their fields is choking “when we come in contact with the water we get ulcerations on our skins and it stings like the bites of 100 insects.”
9. Rudnaya Pristan and Dalnegorsk, Russia
Dalnegorsk and Rudnaya Pristan are two towns in the Russian Far East whose residents suffer from serious lead poisoning from an old smelter and the unsafe transport of lead concentrate from the local lead mining site. Limited initial testing has revealed that children’s blood lead levels are 8 to 20 times the maximum allowable U.S. levels.
10. Mailuu-Suu, Kyrgystan
Potentially affected people: 23,000 immediate, millions potentially
Type of pollutants: Radioactive uranium mine tailings. Gamma radiation from the dumps measures in between 100-600 micro-roentgens per hour. Heavy metals, and cyanides.
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