{"id":57333,"date":"2019-11-09T01:10:25","date_gmt":"2019-11-09T06:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/awesomejelly.com\/?p=57333"},"modified":"2020-02-18T00:44:14","modified_gmt":"2020-02-18T05:44:14","slug":"most-toxic-places-on-earth-t2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/awesomejelly.com\/most-toxic-places-on-earth-t2\/","title":{"rendered":"29 Most Toxic Places On Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Source: https:\/\/www.scoopwhoop.com\/<\/p><\/div>\n

There are 7.7 billion people living on earth, and out of this number, millions are striving to survive in the planet\u2019s most toxic places. Sadly, we caused the pollution that makes these places nearly uninhabitable. We built tens of thousands of power plants and factories and manufactured countless vehicles that emit carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and other harmful particles. We burn coal and fossil fuels, unleashing large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Our abuse of fossil fuels and non-renewable resources has hurt our planet and exposed us to harmful elements and noxious gases.<\/h6>\n
Pollution is the cause of roughly seven million premature deaths every year, resulting from chronic diseases, cancers, and acute respiratory infections. The most dangerous pollutants, like cadmium, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide, are produced as byproducts of copper extraction and the burning of fossil fuels. Lead, mercury, radium, radionuclides, and pesticides affect millions of people, cutting lives short by decades.<\/h6>\n
Emerging nations with fossil fuel and nuclear powerplants generate many environmental problems such as exploitation of natural resources, air emissions, and thermal releases. There is a high mortality rate in developing countries where overpopulation, raw fuel production, unregulated mining, and industrial waste disposal contaminate the environment and lead to adverse effects on health.<\/h6>\n
Here are some of the planet\u2019s most toxic places, rendered nearly uninhabitable by man-made pollution:<\/strong>
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Agbogbloshie, Ghana<\/h2>\n
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Source: http:\/\/greatforest.com\/<\/p><\/div>\n

This commercial district in Ghana is known as the second largest e-waste landfill in West Africa. It\u2019s called the digital dumping ground where tons of electronic waste are broken down and processed each year, and the inhabitants live, eat, relieve themselves, and work in the toxic junkyard. The people working in the recycling trade, burning cables and electronics to recover metals and copper, are exposed to serious health and safety risks. Burning and processing of e-waste emits harmful chemicals into the ground, water, and atmosphere, and poisons such as arsenic, dioxins, furans, lead, and mercury severely pollute the terrain. Even chicken eggs have been found contaminated with dangerous levels of dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls. The ceaseless burning of plastic coverings brought about high levels of lead in soil, posing serious risks to children and workers, most of which die young from cancer and respiratory problems.
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Al-Ahmadi, Kuwait<\/h2>\n
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Source: https:\/\/amp.thenational.ae\/<\/p><\/div>\n

Al-Ahmadi is a district in Kuwait that houses the Kuwait Oil Company and its many refineries. Oil production from local refineries and processing plants release dangerous greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and chlorofluorocarbons. The city has very high concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10, harmful particulate pollutants. PM2.5 are fine particles in the air that are no bigger than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, and PM10 are tiny droplets that are 10 micrometers or less in width. Metal extraction and combustion processes are common sources of PM2.5 while industrial processes and combustion activities lead to the emission of PM10. Massive trends in urbanization relying on oil production and an increase in transportation released these air pollutants. Studies show that long-term exposure to high levels of fine particulate matter leads to more premature deaths from heart disease, lung cancer, and severe chronic bronchitis.
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Appalachia, West Virginia<\/h2>\n
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Source: https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/<\/p><\/div>\n

Hundreds of thousands of square miles of Appalachian land face the consequences of mining, with machines and explosives destroying mountain peaks to obtain coal. Decades of mining discharged toxins into the land and water, and more than 40% of West Virginia\u2019s rivers are too polluted to be safely used for drinking and other forms of recreation. Mining, raw sewage, and industrial waste have contaminated bodies of water to a level too poisoned to support healthy aquatic life. Mining coal with high levels of selenium have severely affected surrounding streams. Exposure to and absorption of much higher levels of selenium can cause liver, kidney, and heart problems, and can possibly lead to death. Unless mining of these coal seams and selenium pollution are prevented, a lifetime of expensive treatment is required to save the freshwater ecosystems encompassing the land.
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Chernobyl, Ukraine<\/h2>\n
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Source: https:\/\/inhabitat.com\/<\/p><\/div>\n

This city in Ukraine is known for the nuclear disaster that occurred in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on April 26, 1986. It is recognized as the worst nuclear disaster in history, releasing significant amounts of radioactivity, in the form of particulate and gaseous radioisotopes, into the atmosphere. Compared to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, about four hundred times more radioactive material was unleashed from the Chernobyl disaster, contaminating air, mountain regions, and groundwater. The accident also adversely affected flora and fauna, causing the death of evergreen, coniferous trees and sickness and sterility in animals. Hundreds of animals born after the incident carried deformities such as missing limbs, ribs, eyes, heads, or deformed skulls.<\/h6>\n
The UN estimates 50 people died as a direct result of the nuclear catastrophe, and 4,000 more might eventually perish from exposure to radiation. While exposure to radioactive iodine was a main health concern immediately after the tragedy, today, the ghost city that used to be home to 14,000 residents will remain contaminated and desolate for the next 300 years.
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Citarum River, Indonesia<\/h2>\n
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Source: http:\/\/www.sewonartspace.org\/<\/p><\/div>\n

The Citarum River is the largest and longest river in West Java, Indonesia, but it is also known as one of the world\u2019s most polluted rivers. Five million people depend on it for water and fish supply, but it is heavily polluted by industrial and domestic activities. The river has a range of contaminants and high concentrations of cadmium, chromium, and manganese. Textile factories from surrounding districts are major contributors to untreated waste, contaminating the river with arsenic, dye, lead, mercury, and other toxins. Rice farms also discharge organic compounds and pesticides into the water. The riverbanks and the surface of the water are polluted by massive piles of plastic, rubber, and other waste products. With lax environmental regulations and a poor waste-disposal structure, residents have turned the river into a dumpsite of toxic chemicals. Consumption of these chemicals is fatal for marine life, and exposure causes skin infections, kidney failures, circulatory problems, and cancers among residents.<\/h6>\n

Dzerzhinsk, Russia<\/h2>\n
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Source: http:\/\/www.cbrneportal.com\/<\/p><\/div>\n

During the Cold War, Dzerzhinsk was one of Russia\u2019s primary manufacturers of chemical weapons. Today, the city is still an important center in Russia\u2019s chemical industry, producing materials for synthetic textiles, plastics, and phosphate and nitrate fertilizers. However, the city\u2019s chemical industry caused the improper disposal of tons of chemical waste into the groundwater, turning the water into sludge that contains fatal levels of dioxins and phenol, levels allegedly 17 million times higher than the safe limit. While a number of chemical factories are no longer in operation, the local groundwater has risen, and the rise in water level threatens to contaminate the local water supply, the Oka River, with arsenic, dioxins, lead, and mercury. Exposure to and ingestion of contaminated water led to a rise in premature deaths, and in 2003, the mortality rate exceeded the birth rate by 260%. The Guinness Book of World Records has identified Dzerzhinsk as the most chemically-polluted city in the world.
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Hazaribagh, Bangladesh<\/h2>\n
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Source: https:\/\/www.ctvnews.ca\/<\/p><\/div>\n

Tanneries where animal skins are processed to produce leather are located on about 25 hectares of land in and around Hazaribagh. About 95% of Bangladesh’s tanneries are in Hazaribagh, and the tanning industry is the primary source of work for the locals. Unfortunately, the tanneries practice outdated, inefficient, and hazardous processing methods, and almost all workers handle dangerous chemicals wearing no protective gear such as gloves and aprons. Workers and residents are exposed to harmful chemicals that can cause acid burns, body aches, dizziness, nausea, and rashes, as well as skin and respiratory diseases. Aside from adults, children also spend hours working in the tanneries despite UN laws protecting children from economic exploitation and work that is detrimental to their health or development.<\/h6>\n
Collectively, the tanneries dump 22,000 cubic liters of toxic waste into the Buriganga River, the locals\u2019 main source of water. The river is so polluted, it is void of aquatic life. The surrounding streams, ponds, and canals are also contaminated, and the air is heavily polluted by trade recyclers who burn scraps of leather to produce other consumer products.
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Hinkley, California<\/h2>\n
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Source: https:\/\/latimesblogs.latimes.com\/<\/p><\/div>\n

The residents of Hinkley, an unincorporated community in California, sued Pacific Gas and Electric Company for dumping 370 million gallons of contaminated wastewater into the region\u2019s groundwater. The company used chromium 6 or hexavalent chromium, a cheap rust suppressor that kept their pipelines free of rust and algae, despite knowing that the compound is a genotoxic carcinogen. The legal clerk and environmental activist, Erin Brockovich, investigated the number of illnesses linked to hexavalent chromium. Even though the lawsuit was settled in 1996 for $333 million, residents were still concerned about the risks of water contamination and relocated, and property values plummeted. The community\u2019s school closed in 2013, and the post office shut down in 2015. The town\u2019s population continues to dwindle, and in 2016, The New York Times described Hinkley as gradually becoming a ghost town.<\/h6>\n

Kabwe, Zambia<\/h2>\n
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Source: https:\/\/tumfweko.com\/<\/p><\/div>\n

The capital of the Zambian Central Province was founded when lead and zinc deposits were discovered in the region in 1902. Today, Kabwe is an important transportation and mining center, but it is also one of the most polluted places in the world. After almost a century of mining and smelting, lead, zinc, and cadmium have permeated into the soil of hills and into the local water supply. Even though some mines and giant smelters have closed years ago, metals are still extracted by local residents and fumes left the surrounding terrain with incredibly high levels of lead. The ground is severely contaminated that nothing can be planted and grown.<\/h6>\n
Lead is a potent neurotoxin that is terribly hazardous to children, particularly infants and toddlers who accidentally swallow the metal by touching the contaminated ground and then their mouths. Lead poisoning is the cause of brain damage, paralysis, blindness, and other disabilities among generations of children. With the children\u2019s blood showing high levels of lead and with no way to reverse lead poisoning, this health problem remains an extremely sensitive issue in Kabwe.
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Kalimantan, Indonesia<\/h2>\n
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Source: https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/<\/p><\/div>\n

Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world, and it also has some of the planet\u2019s richest gold deposits. However, mercury is used to extract pieces of gold that\u2019s mixed in soil and sediments, and as the gold production exploded, so did mercury contamination. Small-scale gold miners in Central and South Kalimantan who have joined large multinational corporations are also at risk of mercury poisoning. It\u2019s even riskier for small operators who often work in their homes, exposing their family and unborn children to hazardous amounts of mercury vapor. In fact, concentrations of mercury in the Kahayan River in Kalimantan are twice the recommended standard, adversely affecting water and fish supply. The ongoing mercury contamination has caused kidney problems, muscle weakness, numbness in hands and feet, poor coordination and memory, and trouble speaking, hearing, or seeing. Doctors and environmental groups have documented several cases of mercury poisoning in the mining communities, hoping to warn the government and the residents of the terrible, lifelong, and often fatal consequences of mercury poisoning.<\/h6>\n

Kebasen, Indonesia<\/h2>\n
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Source: https:\/\/pulitzercenter.org\/<\/p><\/div>\n

Indonesia is a geological wonderland known for its beaches, volcanoes, and Komodo dragons, but there is a town in the outskirts of Tegal where smoke billows from chimneys of battery smelters. The Garuda Jaya plant in Kebasen is one of three battery smelters operating without permits, safety precautions, or protective gears. There are no industrial scrubbers on the chimneys to purify exhaust steams and prevent, or at least minimize, hazardous gases and materials from entering the atmosphere. These battery recyclers and smelters are notorious for emitting high concentrations of lead and other harmful substances into the air. The threat continues from these metalworking factories that spew toxic smoke, carrying noxious particles that land on rice fields and neighboring villages. It\u2019s no better inside the factories where workers are engulfed in smoke as they shovel lead-acid car batteries into the fire, exposing them directly to emitted lead dioxide and sulfuric acid. The toxic fumes cause headaches, dizziness, and nausea. Lead exposure causes irreversible damage to developing brains and contributes to intellectual disabilities and behavioral concerns in children.
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Kolkata, India<\/h2>\n
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Source: https:\/\/akm-img-a-in.tosshub.com\/<\/p><\/div>\n

Kolkata, also known as Calcutta or Kalikata, the capital of West Bengal, faces many environmental issues that are severely affecting its environment and its inhabitants\u2019 health. Excessive waste, air pollution, and water pollution are prevalent in the populous city. Tanneries pump untreated sewage water containing toxic chemicals, such as chromium, into canals and ditches and discharge the waste into the Hooghly River. In 2003, the Federation of Consumer Associations (FCA) reported that 87% of reservoirs that supply water to residents were contaminated with human feces. The study also showed that water samples collected from hospitals, as well as deep wells and hand pumps, were also polluted with human excrement.<\/h6>\n
In 2009, Kolkata\u2019s atmospheric suspended particulate matter was 511, making it the most polluted metropolitan in India, and 70% of the city\u2019s residents suffered from respiratory diseases, from asthma to lung cancer. In 2010, Kolkata was reported to have the highest number of lung cancer cases in India, and The Telegraph dubbed the polluted city \u201cThe Lung Cancer Capital of India.<\/h6>\n

Kotzebue, Alaska<\/h2>\n
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Source: https:\/\/media.pri.org\/<\/p><\/div>\n

Kotzebue, also called Kikiktagruk, is the largest community and economic and transportation hub in the Northwest Arctic Borough of Alaska. According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), Kotzebue, a remote city of 3,500 inhabitants, is the most toxic place in America. This Alaskan town released 756 million pounds of hazardous chemicals into the environment. The Red Dog Mine, which is located 82 miles north of Kotzebue, is most likely responsible for the waste. The mine which opened in 1989 has the world\u2019s largest zinc reserves and is also the largest producer of zinc on the planet. The mine releases harmful substances into the air, water, and soil, infecting the lichens that absorb them. Wildlife, such as caribou, consume the contaminated vegetation and become a danger to the human residents who eat them.
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Lake Karachay, Russia<\/h2>\n
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Source: http:\/\/top-channel.tv\/<\/p><\/div>\n

Lake Karachay is a small body of water located in the southern Ural Mountains in eastern Russia. Decades ago, the Soviet Union used the lake as a dumping site for radioactive waste from the Mayak Production Association, a nearby nuclear waste storage and reprocessing facility. Today, Lake Karachay is an infill mainly used as a nuclear waste storage facility. Affected by a string of disasters and accidents that caused radioactive contamination in surrounding areas, Lake Karachay is considered the most polluted expanse in the world from a radiological point of view. The lake bed\u2019s sediments are composed almost completely of high-level radioactive waste deposits. The radiation in the region is at an extremely high level that simply standing on the shore of the lake just for an hour would expose a human to a lethal dose of radiation.
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La Oroya, Peru<\/h2>\n
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Source: https:\/\/www.business-humanrights.org\/<\/p><\/div>\n

La Oroya sits on a plateau in the Andes Mountains at the junction of the Mantaro and Yauli rivers. The mining town is a smelting and refining center for copper, lead, silver, and zinc ores. An American-owned smelter that did not enforce environmental measures has been polluting La Oroya since 1922. The mining and processing of heavy metals and minerals caused pollution, contaminating the soil with arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, sulfur dioxide, and zinc. Resulting from years of pollution, the local river became toxic, surrounding hills became completely denuded of grass, and residents had health complications, with 99% of children having blood lead levels exceeding acceptable limits. Lead is extremely hazardous to children, and even though steps have been taken to reduce active emissions from smelters, the soil will remain contaminated with lead for centuries.
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Linfen, China<\/h2>\n
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Source: https:\/\/s4.reutersmedia.net\/<\/p><\/div>\n

Linfen is located in southwestern Shanxi Province, the heart of the expanding coal industry in China. The production of coal that fueled China\u2019s economic growth also ravaged what was once a farming community with natural springs and rich agriculture and changed it into an overpopulated and severely polluted coal town. The country\u2019s rapid industrialization and urbanization led to an increased demand in energy and coal, opening a number of poorly regulated mines. Mining, smelting, machinery, manufacturing, and other forms of heavy industry led to devasting environmental damages. Residents complain that they literally choke on coal dust, and the children have high rates of lead in their blood because of the excessive air pollution. The city is enveloped is soot and smog from industrial pollutants, and inhabitants suffer from bronchitis, pneumonia, lung cancer, and other respiratory diseases.
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Matanza River, Argentina<\/h2>\n
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Source: https:\/\/timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com\/<\/p><\/div>\n

The 64-kilometer stream in Argentina goes by several names, including Riachuelo (\u201cLittle River\u201d), R\u00edo de la Manzana (\u201cThe Apple River\u201d), and R\u00edo de la Matanza (\u201cThe Slaughter River\u201d). While these names seem so different from each other, R\u00edo de la Matanza sounds the most fitting considering the cancers, diarrheal diseases, and respiratory diseases suffered by people who get their supply of water and food from the river. The Matanza River is the most important conduit in Buenos Aires, with thousands of factories operating along its banks. However, it is also one of the most polluted waterways in the world, and it contains high levels of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, nickel, and zinc. Hundreds of local businesses, particularly tanneries, chemical plants, and factories, dump industrial waste and toxic chemicals into the river, severely polluting it.
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Niger Delta, Nigeria<\/h2>\n
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Source: https:\/\/s3.reutersmedia.net\/<\/p><\/div>\n

The delta of the Niger River sits directly on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean and is located within the coastal states in Nigeria. The Niger Delta, also called Oil Rivers, is a densely populated region that\u2019s also rich in petroleum. However, from the two million barrels of oil extracted daily in the Niger Delta, there have been over 7,000 recorded oil spills in 30 years, polluting creeks, fishing grounds, mangroves, and swamps. Annually, over 240,000 barrels of crude oil are spilled in the river\u2019s delta, and these oil spills do not only contaminate the soil and groundwater but also locally grown crops. Hydrocarbons in crude oils have damaging effects on the environment as well as on the agricultural and aquatic communities, leading to a drastic increase in malnutrition among local children. Furthermore, significant quantities of natural gas extracted from oil wells are immediately burned, releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
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Norilsk, Russia<\/h2>\n
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Source: https:\/\/external-preview.redd.it\/<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s standard\u2014and twenty years lower than the United States\u2019 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.
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Pesarean, Indonesia<\/h2>\n
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Source: http:\/\/www.pureearth.org\/<\/p><\/div>\n

Pesarean, a province in Central Java, is home to a thousand people whose primary source of income is from working in recycle smelters. Large-scale industrial smelters are equipped to safely extract lead from automobile batteries, but in the tiny villages of Pesarean, there are hundreds of smaller operators who smelt lead without safety precautions or concern for environmental regulations. Fire pits where batteries are burned leave piles of ash, turning the soil grey. Even the water from the village creek is grey, and black toxic waste spills into a larger stream that waters the rice fields and contaminates the crops. These small-scale operations are responsible for the emission of hazardous lead particulate into the environment, polluting the soil, groundwater, and air. Families exposed to years of smelting have high levels of lead in their blood, and lead poisoning has devastating effects mostly on children, causing irreversible damage to developing brains.
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Picher, Oklahoma<\/h2>\n
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Source: https:\/\/miro.medium.com\/<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u2019s children had enough lead in their blood to cause brain damage. The mines were shut down in the \u201870s, 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.
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Port-au-Prince, Haiti<\/h2>\n
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Source: https:\/\/cdn.dvidshub.net\/<\/p><\/div>\n

There are many environmental issues plaguing the capital and most populous city in Haiti. The lack of protection and proper management of the region\u2019s natural resources leads to deforestation, natural disasters, poor sanitation, and severe pollution with people dumping waste and sewage into the canals that run through Port-au-Prince. When it rains, the city gets flooded from the canals that are full of garbage, bringing waves of toxic sludge to families packed in homes in the projects. There are no sewers that connect sinks and bathrooms to wastewater treatment plants, and most of the three million people in the city relieve themselves in outhouses where human waste ends up in canals, ditches, and unsanitary dumping grounds. Human excrement then contaminates the drinking water and spreads disease. Without an effective waste management system, the city faces major problems in garbage disposal services, infectious diseases, pollution, as well as availability and quality of water.
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Rawalpindi, Pakistan<\/h2>\n
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Source: https:\/\/dailytimes.com.pk\/<\/p><\/div>\n

Rawalpindi, more commonly known as Pindi, is a major commercial and industrial center. It is home to many businesses, including gasworks, locomotive works, metalworks, marble factories, leather tanning facilities, oil refineries, sawmills, and textile mills. It also processes and manufactures cotton, hosiery, newsprint, pottery, shoes, and tents. However, with a lack of funds dedicated to air quality monitors, these industries negatively impact air quality, and the city has been identified as the second most polluted city in Pakistan. Aside from emissions of hazardous gases from factories and black smoke from brick kilns that turn clay into products, a scarcity of trees and an abundance of vehicles brings Rawalpindi\u2019s air pollution to levels 10 times above what is considered safe. According to a 2015 report by Lancet, a prestigious medical journal, over 20 percent of deaths in the region are caused by pollution, with a majority due to air pollution.
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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch<\/h2>\n
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Source: https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/<\/p><\/div>\n

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also called the Pacific Trash Vortex or Plastic Island, is not an island but a massive collection of marine debris spanning from Japan to the West Coast of North America. This massive patch of accumulated plastic waste is comprised of the Western Garbage Patch situated near Japan and the Eastern Garbage Patch located between Hawaii and California. The vast patch of bottles, bottle caps, fishing nets, wrappers, and trillions of plastic fragments covers an estimated surface area of 1.6 million square kilometers, making it three times the size of France, and it\u2019s still growing. The abandoned fishing gear, known as \u201cghost gear,\u201d accounts for 46% of the area and is mostly responsible for ensnaring and killing fish, dolphins, sea turtles, and other forms of marine life. Alarmingly, even though the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest and most densely packed accumulation of debris in the oceans, it is not the only patch in the world.
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Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia<\/h2>\n
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Source: https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/<\/p><\/div>\n

The world\u2019s coldest national capital is also one of the most polluted, with children being evacuated from the city because of severely toxic air conditions. Families take their young children to rural areas in Mongolia or to nearby countries to escape the poisonous air in Ulaanbaatar. The quality of air gets worse during the winter months when people burn unrefined coal in their homes to stay warm, releasing hazardous particles into the atmosphere. It is worse in the northern districts where families living in gers, traditional nomadic yurts, burn anything they can find just to stay warm. As the city rapidly grows and industrializes and the population expands, pollution worsens, and children are exposed to harmful air pollutants. In a developing city like Ulaanbaatar, a startling 98% of children under age five are vulnerable against the dangerous levels of fine particulate matter that can travel inside their respiratory tract and cause various health problems.
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Vapi, India<\/h2>\n
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Source: https:\/\/dailyroabox.com\/<\/p><\/div>\n

This industrial town in Gujarat is among the most critically polluted areas in the country. It sits at the southern end of a long belt of industrial factories, and the 21-kilometer stretch of small-scale chemical industries is considered the longest chemical strip in Asia. While rapid economic growth brought wealth to the community, Vapi became a dumping place for chemicals and heavy metals, earning it the name, \u201cThe Armpit of India.\u201d Vapi has two rivers flowing through it, carrying poorly disposed industrial waste, and the contaminated water has affected the local fishing communities. Decades of damage caused by chemical industries have deeply polluted air and water. Levels of mercury in the groundwater are 96 times higher than the safe standard, and hazardous gases released into the air have affected the local produce and the residents.
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Whittier, California<\/h2>\n
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Source: https:\/\/www.whittierdailynews.com\/<\/p><\/div>\n

The Omega Chemical Corporation in Whittier recycled refrigerant and other organic solvents through reformulation and oil separation treatments. Disturbingly, the company received tons of hazardous chemicals from other companies and allowed volatile compounds like Freon to contaminate the groundwater and soil. This became a serious problem for the farming town famous for planting oats, barley, fruits, and vegetables. Freon is a tasteless and mostly odorless gas, but if deeply inhaled, it can cause respiratory problems and damage vital organs, burning the esophagus and irritating the lungs and the stomach. When Freon comes in contact with the body, it can cause necrotic skin lesions and damaged tissue. In 1995, 3,000 drums of toxic waste and empty chemical drums were removed from Whittier, but the soil and groundwater were still contaminated and numerous wells in surrounding cities were shut down. As of 2018, over 12,500 pounds of pollutants have been removed from the city.
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Yamuna River, India<\/h2>\n
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Source: https:\/\/c.ndtvimg.com\/<\/p><\/div>\n

The river that once had clear blue water is now one of the most polluted rivers in the world. Delhi, the country\u2019s capital, dumps more than half its waste straight into the Yamuna River. Decades ago, people can take a bath in the river and drink its water, but now, the water is completely toxic. Delhi\u2019s severe air pollution even created a toxic foam on the river, and pollutants from the river seep into the soil and contaminate the land and the local produce. Despite how hazardous the water is, several devotees still immerse themselves in the noxious foam, offering prayers to the holy river during festivals. Hundreds of people who live on the banks of Yamuna also rely on the river for water and food, and these inhabitants have been found with high concentrations of chromium, lead, and nickel in their bloodstream, caused by years consuming the contaminated food.
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Yanbu, Saudi Arabia<\/h2>\n
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Source: http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/<\/p><\/div>\n

Yanbu’ al Bahr is a rich industrial city and a bustling seaport on the Red Sea. It is a major petroleum shipping terminal and the home of oil refineries, a plastics facility, and several petrochemical plants. However, along with the industrial development, emissions from oil refineries and dust from the coastal desert land contribute to the poor quality of air in Yanbu. The air is filled pollutants, particulate matter, volatile compounds, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and other airborne organic compounds. Sulfuric compounds have a very strong odor, and residents are concerned about the stench coming from industrial plants. Limited wind does not help to dispel the sulfuric gases emitted from chemical plants, and children are asked to stay indoors. The Royal Commission of Jubail and Yanbu (RCJY) continues to monitor the air and check that gases do not exceed recommended quantities.<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are 7.7 billion people living on earth, and out of this number, millions are striving to survive in the planet\u2019s most toxic places. Sadly, we caused the pollution that makes these places nearly uninhabitable. We built tens of thousands of power plants and factories and manufactured countless vehicles that emit carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and other harmful particles. We burn coal and fossil fuels, unleashing large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Our abuse of fossil fuels and non-renewable resources has hurt our planet and exposed us to harmful elements and noxious gases. Pollution is the cause <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57334,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,6590],"tags":[347,7422,4281,14510,14509],"yst_prominent_words":[11681,14503,9386,9676,14504,14496,14506,14497,14101,14507,14500,14501,12897,14502,14498,14508,8811,14505,11283,8898],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/awesomejelly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57333"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/awesomejelly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/awesomejelly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awesomejelly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awesomejelly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/awesomejelly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57364,"href":"https:\/\/awesomejelly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57333\/revisions\/57364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awesomejelly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/awesomejelly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awesomejelly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awesomejelly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57333"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awesomejelly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=57333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}