Science

Blacksmith Institute releases 2007 “World’s Most Polluted Places”

by William Atkins

Monday, 01 October 2007

On September 12, 2007, the New York-based independent environmental organization listed the most polluted places on Earth: six out of ten are in China, India, and Russia (eight out of ten when considering all of the territories of the former Soviet Union).

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According to the organization’s press release, the ten sites, located in seven countries, adversely affects over 12 million people.

The world’s worst polluted places as of 2007 are (listed alphabetically by country):

Sumgayit, Azerbaijan
Linfen, China
Tianying, China
Sukinda, India
Vapi, India
La Orava, Peru
Dzerzhinsk, Russia
Norilsk, Russia
Chernobyl, Ukraine
Kabwe, Zambia

The Blacksmith Institute report states, "ranking is not realistic or feasible...given the wide range of location sizes, populations and pollution dynamics."

The founder and director of Blacksmith Institute, Richard Fuller, states within the press release, “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. This year, there has been more focus on pollution in the media, but there has been little action in terms of new funding or programs. We all need to step up to the plate and get moving."

The full report is found at: http://www.blacksmithinstitute.org/wwpp2007/finalReport2007.pdf.

As an example, Blacksmith Institute states that former Soviet industrial center Sumgavit, Azerbaijan is polluted due to organic chemicals (such as oil and heavy metals like mercury) from petrochemical, agricultural chemical, and industrial complexes. Products such as chlorine, aluminum, detergents, pesticides, and synthetic rubber are used or made there. At the peak of its degradation of the environment and its people, 70 to 120 thousand tons of harmful emissions were released into the atmosphere each year. It directly and adversely affects about 275,000 people.

As another example, Vapi, India contains over fifty poisons from pesticides, chromium, mercury, lead, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), and cadmium. Mercury levels, for instance, in the groundwater at Vapi has been reported to be 96 times higher than health standards published by the World Health Organization (WHO). Blacksmith Institute states within its report that, today, twelve mines operate in the area without any type of environmental controls.

Chernobyl, Ukraine is estimated to negatively affect about 5.5 million people primarily due to radioactive materials from its 1986 nuclear reactor explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

The Blacksmith “The World’s Most Polluted Places” list was first publicized in 2006. The publicity generated by the report, especially the negative publicity on these countries (especially China, India, and Russia) and these companies, will hopefully help them to create and/or improve their environmental laws and policies to reduce the amount of environmental pollution that comes out of these sites.

In addition, the Blacksmith Institute also list its “Dirty 30”, which is a list of the thirty most polluted locations around the world. The press release from the Blacksmith Institute says that most of the places on the “Dirty 30” list are located in Asia, specifically in China, India, and Russia.

The Top 10 list and the Dirty 30 list were generated by Blacksmith Institute’s Technical Avisory Board, which includes environmental researchers, specialists, and experts from Green Cross Switzerland, The Johns Hopkins University, Hunter College, Harvard University, IIT Delhi, University of Idaho, Mt. Sinai Hospital, and leaders of major international environmental remediation companies.

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