World's Most Polluted Cities
By chili, December 1st 2009 in Travel Destinations Comments (2)
StumbleEach continent has its own ecological bane that always gets on the list of the worst polluted places on our globe. Be it dirty air of North America's cities or extremely contaminated soils found in the smelting hubs of Africa or South America, these places beg for mercy and some substantial clean-up programs. You will not include these locations in your next itinerary, unless you need a warning and reminder of how people should not treat the Earth.
North America.
The three most polluted cities on the North American continent are Pittsburgh in the USA, Windsor in Canada and Mexico City in Mexico.
Pittsburgh. The U.S.A.
Pittsburgh's skyline. By spike55151
Polluted air is a serious threat to 189 million United States' residents and six in ten Americans live in cities where the level of ozone or particle pollution is so high that it can lead to asthma, bronchitis, heart attack and even death. Pittsburgh, the second largest city in the state of Pennsylvania, is an example of one of the most polluted cities in the country.
It comes as a big surprise that over recent years Pittsburgh has many times been named "the most livable city in the USA". Still, according to the American Lung Association's annual report, the city has reported the highest short-term particle pollution (amount of tiny solid and liquid particles in the air such as soot or exhaust) and the second highest year-round levels. Main sources of such pollution are cars, coal-fired power plants and steel industry. Some researches claim, however, that the city's air pollution comes from the factories in Ohio.
Windsor. Canada.
Windsor. Ontario, Canada. By lepiaf.geo
Windsor, the major city of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, is the country's hub of the automobile industry. However, its main source of air pollution is the industry located in the U.S. The city is situated at the Canada-U.S. border, and therefore, around 90% of smog comes from the American side. By the way of example, there are four coal-fired power plants in Ontario, while U.S. Midwest is home to around 250 such plants.
In 2008 Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental activist, claimed that American companies made Windsor "the most polluted city in North America." According to Kennedy, the city reports some of the highest cancer rates and respiratory illnesses rates in Canada. In turn, the Weather Network has named Windsor "the smog capital of Canada", the channel underlines, however, that one of the main sources of poor air quality are vehicle emissions.
Mexico City. Mexico.
Rush hour in Mexico City. By Gary Denness
The capital of Mexico and one of the world's most populated cities is an ecological trap due to its geographical location. The city is situated in a valley, around 7,300 feet (2,240 meters) above sea level, so the air is really thin and the exhausts get trapped. Moreover, the winds in circulation are too weak to diffuse the contaminated air outside the metropolis.
The recent research reveals that the smog hanging over the city is a serious threat to its residents, especially children. Apparently, Mexico's polluted air prevents lungs from growing and working properly. According to National Public Health Institute, the effect of exposure to contaminated air in Mexico City is bigger than the effect of exposure to maternal smoking among children in the U.S.
To alleviate the problem of air pollution local and federal authorities have been implementing various plans, which include closing factories, " A day without a car" programs , modernizing old buses and promoting the use of bikes.
South America
La Oroya. Peru.
Mining in La Oroya. Peru. By Matthew Burpee
The town of about 33,000 residents, situated in the central part of Peru, is home to enormous smelting industry. The first copper smelter emerged in La Oroya in 1922 and since then many other plants and refineries followed. The town's heavy industry has transformed this little mountain village into one of the most polluted places on the globe. Among most serious pollutants found in La Oroya is lead, which is especially devastating to children's health. 99% of children living in the town have high degree of lead in their blood, which is especially harmful to kids' mental development.
The Missouri-based Doe Run, which owns the smelting business in La Oroya, has been obliged to implement an environmental management plan that will reduce the emissions. In some areas the progress has been made as the company has managed to lower some emissions and has invested (jointly with the Peruvian Ministry of Health) $1 million yearly in the program designed to reduce blood lead levels in the area. The ecologists underline, however, that the sulfur dioxide emissions have remained very high in the town and lead will stay in the area's soil for centuries.
Europe
Pernik. Bulgaria.
Pernik in Bulgaria. By niv
Pernik, a town of about 90,000 inhabitants situated near Sofia, is considered to be the worst polluted place in the country and the entire European Union. In the mid-20th century the development of coal industry commenced in the region, transforming Pernik into the energy center of Bulgaria. Today the town is home to a large number of metallurgy plants that cause extreme pollution in the region. According to the recent report revealed by the EU, the average dust concentration in Pernik totals 92 microgrammes per cubic meter, which is the highest level among the EU member states, which report 30 mg of dust level on average.
Apparently, Bulgaria itself is the most contaminated country among European Union states. It is filled with old cars with no catalytic converters and there are plenty second-hand vehicles from western European countries. Moreover, most of the country's small towns use coal-fired heating during winter, which is a great contributor to unhealthy emissions.
Chernobyl. Ukraine.
Abandoned amusement park in Chernobyl. By Pedro Moura Pinheiro
Chernobyl, a small town in northern Ukraine, near the border with Belarus, is associated with the Chernobyl accident - the worst nuclear power plant disaster in history. The accident occurred in April 1986 causing many deaths mainly due to the radiation poisoning. About 336,000 people living in some areas of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia had to be evacuated because of extreme contamination, and nuclear rain was observed in Central, Western, and as fas as Northern Europe.
Today Chernobyl remains one of the most polluted places on Earth. There is a 19-mile (30 km) exclusion zone around the town where people are not allowed to live. Still, between 1992 and 2002 around 4,000 of thyroid cancer cases were found among children living near the zone.
According to various estimates between 60 and 200 years is needed before the land could be used for some industrial purposes, and farming would be very dangerous for at least 200 years. The place where Reactor #4 exploded is estimated to be fully safe in 20,000 years.
Asia
Norilsk. Russia.
Smelting industry in Norilsk, Russia. By Lvovsky
Norilsk, the second largest city above the Arctic Circle, inhabited by about 130,000 people, is the mining and smelting industry hub of Russia. The first plants appeared in the town in the 1930s and today Norilsk is home to the world's largest smelting complex. The town of acid rain and smog is the country's greatest polluter - it releases 500 tones of each copper and nickel oxides and 2 million tons of sulfur dioxide annually.
The main culprit for this situation is Norilsk Nickel, a huge firm that controls one-third of the world's nickel deposits and is Russia's main producer of nickel, cobalt, platinum and palladium.
Such heavily contaminated air causes serious health problems such as respiratory diseases, higher mortality, pregnancy complications and lung cancer. According to the Blacksmith Institute, an organization supporting pollution-related environmental projects, "children living near the nickel plant were shown to become ill at a rate 1.5 times higher than children from further districts."
Linfen. China.
Fields in front of a new factory emerging in Linfen. By sheilaz413
Smog covers the city of Linfen that sits along the banks of the Fen River in China. In 2007 the city, home to around 4 million people, was considered by the Blacksmith Institute the world's most polluted town. Linfen is home to an enormous coal industry, filled with hundreds of legal and illegal mines, steel plants and refineries, providing almost two thirds of China's energy. The air is dark in the town and its inhabitants literally choke on coal dust. The level of sulfur dioxide and other particulates exceeds any acceptable limits and there is a shortage of water due to contamination of drinking water sources by arsenic.
The Linfen's residents suffer from various diseases such as lung cancer, bronchitis, pneumonia, and the children's blood lead level is many times higher than any acceptable norms.
According to the World Bank, 16 out of 20 of the world's most polluted cities in terms of air quality are in China.
Africa
Kabwe. Zambia
Abadoned industrial site near Kabwe, Zambia. By Les Amis de la Terre
Kabwe, home to 210,000 residents, is the capital of Zambian Central Province, Zambia. In 1902 lead and zinc deposits were found in the town and soon after the smelting and mining industry were set up and operated until 1994. The plants were closed down but they left the city's soil and water polluted by lead and metals. Children's blood lead levels are up to 10 times higher than the acceptable limits set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Since 2007 some serious actions have been undertaken to clean up the most contaminated areas of Kabwe. By the way of example, the World Bank allocated $40m for a clean-up program and the Nordic Development Fund granted $10m to the region. In fact, many areas of the town still need to be relocated.
CONFIRMED. The Oroya PERÚ the city most polluted of the world.
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; it arrive 27,000 ug/m3; while the allowed level was 13 ug/m3 (7) and the device that measured the concentration got to its maximum limit probably if the device had had more space in its scale that figure would have been higher (8-9-10), but when Blacksmith was visiting the Oroya the SO2 concentration in air was 0 (zero) (1). Some other figures confirm that Oroya is the most polluted city on the earth: according the report Mantaro Revive 2007: in the Ancienty Oroya has a soil concentration of 4713 ppm of arsenic (As) while the allowed amount is 12 ppm, and the cadmium (Cd) has 193.87 ppm while the permitted amount is 14 ppm, according to the Canadian Environmental Quality Guidelines (2 
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Dr. Godofredo Arauzo
Blacksmith Institute visited the Oroya city in May 2008. The observations about the achievements in the pollution by this metallurgic complex, according to statements of The Inter American Association for the Defense of the Environment (AIDA) by its name in Spanish.are DECEIVING, because such statements have no basis; is a summary presented by Doe Run. AIDA sustain that the environmental quality and the fulfillment or the degree of protection for human health of the Oroya city can not be evaluated based on the quantity of investment made by the company but it should be done based on the current data about the quality of air, lead level in the blood and another environmental and health indicators, that the report does not take into account (1).
Critic that Blacksmith is based on limited datum in order to evaluate, for example, the sulphur bioxide (SO2) level in the zone. Blacksmith Institute affirms that the SO2 concentration in the Oroya city has a day time average of 5.000 ug/m3 (maximum allowed is 13 ug/m3) (CDC); but during the day that Blacksmith was in the Oroya, the SO2 concentration was 0.(1)
Finally AIDA concludes that the Blacksmith report undermines the efforts to really reach the remediation and cleaning of Oroya city (1)
AIDA express too that the quality of air in the Oroya has deteriorated seriously after the metallurgic complex came into Doe Run’s hands. Doe Run itself said that the lead concentration raised to 1.163%, the arsenic to 606% and the cadmium to 1990% (2). The concentrations of lead, cadmium, arsenic, sulphur dioxide and others have substantially increased since 1997, mainly due to the increasing of production; for example, the lead production raised 25% (3). The inhabitants of Oroya city are contaminated by a toxic cocktail (4); it is a living laboratory.
The cadmium concentration (Cd) raised dramatically since the acquisition of the complex by Doe Run. In 1999 the Cd concentration was 0.22 ug/m3 in the Syndicate (the level allowed was 0.0055 ug/m3); it surpassed by more than 40 times the frontier and did not inform anymore to the Ministry for Mines and Energy (MEM) since year 2000; in the same way, the arsenic concentration soared meaningly since 1997. There is not monitoring of particulate material smaller than 2.5 micra (PM 2.5), that are the most dangerous to human health and move easily. Ceverstav says that the parameters of air quality have been deteriorated dramatically after Doe Run have in charge of the complex (5)
The Environment Protection Agency of USA (EPA), has 1467 chemical compounds registered as the most harmful and the sulphur dioxide (SO2) is ranking number 16 in dangerousness (6). Cevestav showed based on the same figures that Doe Run sends to MEM every 3 months, that SO2 emission had incremented in more than 200% since Doe Run has in charge the complex (5).
Blacksmith affirms that the SO2 concentration in the Oroya is in average 5,000 ug/m3 (1); another author reports that this average is 934 ug/m3 (2); the level allowed is 13 ug/m3 (7). The day time concentration is higher between 8 am and 5 pm and it reaches a peak of 2,100 ppb (the allowed value is 280 ppb) (5). In August 13. 2008 the SO2 concentration arrived to an historic and horrifying limit: 27,000 ug/m3 (8-9-10) (the allowed figure is 13 ug/m3 (7).
Another heavy metals and highly toxic compounds are not analysed in the Oroya: vanadium, uranium, mercury, antimony, barium, selenium, chromium, cobalt, molybdenum, nickel, and aluminum (2). The inhabitants of the Oroya are contaminated, not only with lead but too with cadmium, arsenic, sulphur dioxide, and antimony, as well; the antimony concentration is 30 times higher than in USA (11): .
There has not been any decrease in the air concentration of lead in the last 5 years in the Oroya; in Huanchan such concentration is above 15 times the level permitted; in the months of January and February 2007 it was an excess of 245% above the allowed level in Huanchan station; in 2006 the cadmium concentration exceeded 48 times the levels allowed by the WHO (12): lead production increased by 25% (2).
Doe Run monitors only specific sources; it does not monitor the toxic agents that are emitted through the 95 small chimneys neither it monitors to the deposits of concentrateds and deposits to arsenic of Vados and Malpaso, as it does not monitor either the elimination coming from the industrial incinerator and the cock plant that was emitting 23,800 meters cubits per day of toxic gases (PAMA).
Doe Run explained that the pollution of the Oroya had diminished; one attendant person spitted that the pollution has increased; the lecturer answered: show me a document about your statement and the person replied: the best document who I count of is my contaminated body’ (4).
The SO2 emissions from the cooper Peruvian smelting are among the production sources of the highest sulphur dioxide concentration in the world and they are also among the most contaminated production sources in the world (13).
There is not concrete information about the quality control systems to the sampling and to the analysis of the monitoring procedure used by the company; we are not certain about the accuracy, confidentiality and suitable of the information reported to MEM; the figures reported to MEM could be considered as an approximation and are under valuated and they are not in electronic neither in graphic form (5).
The contamination generated in La Oroya is not only limited to this city, but it also pollutes distant areas like Concepcion, 100 km far away of Oroya: University of Missouri found lead in the blood of children with ages 0 to 6 years: 20 to 44 ug/dl in the 72.22% ; 10 to 19 ug/dl in the 16.67%; 45 to 69 ug/dl in the 8.33% and less than 10 ug/dl in the 2.78%; it means that the 97.22% of the children of the city of Conception are contaminated with more than 10 ug/dl of lead in their blood; the amount permitted was 10 ug/dl; but, at present the Academy of Paediatrics of USA says that the maximum allowed is 0 ug/dl of lead in the blood (14). In the rural zone near the Oroya, Cuchimachay there is an amount of 59.26 ppm (the allowed level being 3 ppm) of cadmium in the soil; there is no vegetal cap in this place (15).
The metallurgic complex of Oroya has 37 liquid flows that go to the Mantaro river; Doe Run monitors only 12. The rules of the Peruvian state about monitoring of the quality of water in the mining works state that all the liquid discharges that go to surface waters must be constantly monitored (5-16).
The 2006, 26 July Doe Run obtained the ISO 14001:2004 certificate (17) and the 2008, 11 March was removed because the company did not fulfull the Peruvian environmental laws, and did not have appropriate measures for preventing the pollution (1
Doe Run the 2007 commited 4 heavy and 1 simple violence environment that the Peruvian state had to put to Doe Run a fine to $ 724,500 (The Comercio 08. 20-12)
In Huancayo, 120 km far away from La Oroya there is jurisprudence. In 1942 the Judiciary Power orders to the Cerro de Pasco Copper Corporation, owner of Oroya at that time, to pay a compensation of $ 200,000 to Bazo Velarde, because of the harms caused to the Jatunhuasi Livestock, by the smokes of the Oroya (19).
The Judiciary Power (20), the Constitutional Court (21) and the Inter American Commission for Human Rights (CIDH, for its name in Spanish) (22), demanded that the Peruvian state to be aware about the health of the inhabitants of Oroya..
Oroya pollutes the surface and deep waters, the soil, the air, and generates acid rain (23), factors that cause damages to human and animal health, the ecosystems and biodiversity, in a way greatly irreversible. The smokes of the Oroya have affected 700,000 hectares around the Oroya (2-24).
Doe Run will reduce its contamination in two circumstances: when it uses up to date technology as put in practice in Herculeanum, or when it reduces the refining tons. The Trial plant, in Canada, decreased in 25% the lead concentration in the children blood, and reduced the concentration of heavy metals in the air in more than 75%, by the use of clean technology; in the Paso when the foundry was closed, the lead concentration in the air decreased immediately and the lead concentration in the children’s blood plummeted by more than 75%; in Torreón Mexico, the government ordered to refine only a 50%, and similar effects were obtained (5). The damages must be paid by Doe Run according to the world consensus THE THAT POLLUTE PAY, set in practice in Europe since 1972 (25); the way as it does in Herculaneum can reply these actions in Oroya city (2-27).
.The 2008 August 13 Oroya city has been confirmed as the most polluted city to the world. This day the SO2 concentration in air in the Oroya reached an historical and horrifying level: as journal The Comercio said (
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