POLLUTED PLACES

SUMGAYIT, AZERBAIJAN

As a result of outdated regulations, the 40 or so industrial complexes

in the region have managed to create a severely toxic environment

that has led to numerous health complications for residents.

VAPI, INDIA

Situated at the end of a an extensive line of industrial complexes

that stretch for hundreds of miles upriver, the level of mercury in

Vati’s water supply is 96 times higher than anything considered safe.

DZERZHINSK, RUSSIA

Named the world’s most chemically polluted city by the Guinness Book

of World Records, in recent years its death rate has overwhelmed

its birth rate by more than 260%. It also has one of the lowest life

expectancies in the world at roughly 45 years.

LAKE KARACHAY, RUSSIA

Used for years as a nuclear dumping site by the Soviet Union,

Lake Karachay has several times been declared the most polluted

place on Earth. In fact, it has been said that just 1 hour of

exposure here would be lethal.

CHERNOBYL, UKRAINE

The site of the worst nuclear accident in history, after the Chernobyl

Disaster in 1986 almost all of this town’s 14,000 residents moved away.

Today it remains for the most part uninhabited due to radiation and fallout.

LINFEN, CHINA

It has been said that if you hang your laundry out here, it will be

black before it can even dry. Although Linfen was long considered

the world’s most polluted city, small improvements have been made

in recent years.

NORTH PACIFIC GYRE

You may have heard the horror stories about a trash dump twice

the size of Texas floating out in the middle of the Pacific. While these

are slightly exaggerated there actually is something out there known

as the Pacific Trash Vortex. This is an extensive area in the

North Pacific containing high levels of microscopic toxins, plastics,

and chemical sludge. As a result of the rotating Pacific currents

(known as gyres in oceanography) these have been “trapped”

in the region. Contrary to popular myth though, it cannot be seen

from space (or even from a boat for that matter) but this doesn’t

change the fact that it is extremely damaging to the marine environment.

AHVAZ, IRAN

According to the World Health Organization Ahvaz, Iran is now the

most polluted city in the world, a problem that is only made worse

by its constant dust storms.