Black snow slick with deadly toxins, blankets of choking coal dust and acrid carcinogenic air: welcome to life in the world’s most polluted places.
Poisoned with chemical waste, heavy metals and radiation, these oft overlooked hellholes are the relics of an environmentally ignorant industrial era – contaminated cesspools where living is tantamount to a death sentence.
Compiled by the US-based Blacksmith Institute, an independent environmental group, this Top Ten list of the world's most severely polluted places spans seven countries and affects more than 12 million people.
“In some towns, life expectancy approaches medieval rates and birth defects are the norm, not the exception,” said a Blacksmith spokesman. “In others, children's asthma rates are measured above 90%, and mental retardation is endemic.”
Six of the ten killer communities are in China, India and Russia, where fast-track economic expansion and decades of unregulated mining and chemical production have left a legacy of devastation, both human and environmental.
But it’s not too late. Blacksmith founder and director, Richard Fuller, said the unhealthy effects of all the worst places across the globe could be significantly mitigated for less than $1 billion. Simple fixes like digging up the toxic materials and moving them to safer areas away from people can have huge benefits.
“If you spend 10% of the money, you deal with 90% of the problem,” he said. “The fact of the matter is that children are sick and dying in these polluted places – and it’s not rocket science to fix them.” To find out more about the world's most polluted places (listed alphabetically, because the top ten are unranked within the list), click on the thumbnails below.
by Laura Snook, MSN Environment Editor
Mapped: the world's top ten killer communities
Mapped: the most polluted places on the planet
This top ten list of the world's most severely polluted places, compiled by an environmental group, spans seven countries and affects more than 12 million people. Explore the killer communities with Windows Live Maps.
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