29 Most Toxic Places On Earth

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Norilsk, Russia

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The industrial city situated 400 kilometers above the Arctic Circle is a closed-off city with zero ground connections to the rest of the planet. Norilsk sits on the world’s largest deposits of copper, nickel, and palladium which were formed hundreds of millions of years ago. Mostly dominated by mining companies, it is home to over 177,000 people and the world’s largest mining and metallurgy complex. Every year, over two million tons of sulfur dioxide and a million tons of copper and nickel oxides are discharged into the atmosphere. These harmful emissions have caused an increased number of respiratory diseases, digestive malfunctions, and cancers among inhabitants, with the rate of cancer being two times higher than the rest of Russia. The life expectancy of factory workers in Norilsk is ten years shorter than Russia’s standard—and twenty years lower than the United States’ average. According to the Blacksmith Institute, this industrial wasteland is the most polluted city in Russia and is among the ten most polluted cities in the world.