29 Most Toxic Places On Earth

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Picher, Oklahoma

Source: https://miro.medium.com/

Picher was a major center of lead and zinc mining, but this former city in Ottawa County, Oklahoma, is now a ghost town. Huge deposits of lead and zinc drew miners to the region, but decades of unrestricted excavation left piles of highly toxic mine tailings throughout the area. These hazardous substances contaminated the soil and groundwater and caused adverse health effects among locals and severe lead poisoning in children; more than a third of the city’s children had enough lead in their blood to cause brain damage. The mines were shut down in the ‘70s, but the underground tunnels filled with water, and minerals from the abandoned tunnels leaked into the surrounding area, contaminating land and millions of tons of water. In 2009, the school system was shut down, and in 2013, the municipality was officially dissolved, declaring it uninhabitable because of environmental and health damages and risks.