Here are some of the most polluted places in the world!
10 - North Pacific Gyre The Pacific Ocean is famously the largest
ocean in the world at a span measuring over 63.8 Million square miles.
Let me first explain to those who don't know what a gyre is.
An ocean gyre is a system of currents that sticks to a course and can flow in exactly
the same location and direction.
Isn't nature an amazing thing?
As you'd imagine, if an object is left stranded in one of these, it'll be carried with this
current for many, many years.
Because of this current in the North Pacific Gyre, this area that's also known as the
Pacific Trash Vortex makes this list.
The North Pacific Gyre is home to the world's largest pile of garbage and is topped off
regularly by garbage from the ocean's western garbage pile.
Located off the coast of Japan, the Pacific Trash Vortex can be seen off the shores between
California and Hawaii.
The floating cloud of trash comprises mainly of man-made marine debris collected over the
years of sea exploration and was first discovered as early as 1985.
The size of the patch is unknown, because large items readily visible from say, a boat
deck, are uncommon.
Most debris consists of small plastic particles suspended at or just below the surface, making
it difficult to accurately detect by aircraft or satellite.
The sheer scale of this patch hasn't yet been accurately measured, but we can safely
say it covers at least a few miles.
Estimates of its size range from 270,000 square miles, which is about the size of Texas to
more than 5.8 million square miles, or about 8% of the size of the Pacific Ocean.
9 - Sukinda, India Are you familiar with something called hex-ah-vale-ent
chromium?
If not, basically it's a man-made heavy metal and is used in the production of stainless
steel products and leather tanning.
The vital ingredient in giving these materials their strength is the metal element known
as chromium.
In September 2007, the Blacksmith Institute listed Sukinda as one of the 10 most polluted
places in the world.
However, multiple local political figures and scientists disputed the listing, claiming
that the Blacksmith Institute used outdated research.
Anyways, this particular Indian town has factories that make the products mentioned, as well
as the world's largest and highly exposed chromite ore mine, all of which pollute the
air with toxic fumes that are constantly inhaled.
60 percent of the drinking water in the area contains hexavalent chromium which is more
than double the international acceptance.
What's more interesting is that Indian health officials estimate that 84.5 percent of mine
related deaths are linked to chromium related diseases.
Supposedly, so far nothing has been done to improve living and working conditions or to
combat the levels of pollution.
8 - Kalimantan, Indonesia Kalimantan, found on the Indonesian island
of Borneo, is home to many infamous small-scale gold mines.
Gold is extracted and smelted down using the highly toxic metal, mercury.
Kalimantan is composed of five provinces.
In two of those provinces, Central and South, Artisanal Small-scale Gold Mining forms the
primary source of income for 43,000 people.
Workers and nearby locals are exposed daily to the poisonous fumes of mercury.
The fumes contaminate local waterways, and because of this, surrounding vegetation suffers.
Mercury vapors can travel long distances in the atmosphere, however, the most acute health
risks posed by these mines are more local in nature.
What's even more shocking is that some miners even carry out this dangerous work in their
family homes.
This leads to the mercury fumes becoming trapped in their homes and slowly spreading illness
between them and their families.
Additionally, mercury released during the amalgamation process before smelting is easily
released into area waterways where it can accumulate in fish and water.
Thankfully, since a survey was carried out in 2008 exposing the rising rate of mercury
related deaths, Indonesian governments have taken steps to gradually abandon the use of
mercury and make the gold mining and smelting process safer.
7 - Agbogbloshie - Accra, Ghana Agbogbloshie is the name of a trash dump.
Sure, no big surprise a dump site would be mentioned on this list, except things are
a bit different for this particular site.
Found in Ghana's capital city of Accra, Agbogbloshie is contributing to a dangerously
toxic atmosphere throughout the area.
This site is used mainly for discarding of what's known as 'e-waste', which as
you can imagine, basically means electronic garbage.
Unfortunately,extracting the valuable metals from e-waste consists of burning the rubbers
and plastics protecting it.
The mass scale of burning of these materials causes toxic vapors and leads to a highly
polluted environment.
Poisons such as lead, mercury, and arsenic, seep into the surrounding soil and water,
thereby seriously polluting the landscape.
The burning of plastics and rubbers is carried out with no protective clothing or breathing
apparatus, and is all carried out in open air.
Greenpeace labs tests have shown the water and soil from areas in Agbogbloshie contained
concentrations of toxins at levels a hundred times more than the allowable amount.
Several studies have confirmed high levels of lead in soil with particular risks to workers
and children.
Supposedly, workers in these scrap yards have been reported to only living to their mid-20s
after short careers consisting of long days of nausea, breathing problems, untreated wounds
and burns, anorexia, and inevitable cancer.
Just…..wow.
Exposure to these toxic fumes is especially hazardous to children, as these toxins are
known to inhibit the development of the reproductive system, the nervous system, and the brain
in particular.
High levels of toxins have also been discovered in soil and food samples, as these chemicals
stay in the food chain.
6 - Mediterranean Sea Surrounded by highly populated locations and
dense tourism of southern Europe and northern Africa, it's no wonder the Mediterranean
Sea is an entry on this video.
Underneath the idyllic appearance of the Mediterranean lies evidence of terribly filthy human behavior.
Underwater pipes gush out gallons and gallons of untreated sewage into the sea each year;
650 million tons, to be exact.
In addition to the sewage, 60,000 tons of toxic mercury and 4,000 tons of lead are also
dumped here, along with an estimated 129,000 tons of mineral oil annnnd, just to top it
all off, piles and piles of domestic waste and debris.
It goes without saying that the Mediterranean water has become highly contaminated and become
extremely dangerous to wildlife and beach goers.
Sadly, for its size, the mediterranean sea is classed as the most polluted sea in the
world.
This issue has been raised with the UN many times, however, with the sheer scale and the
huge amounts of contributors to the pollution, it's hard to know where to begin.
5 - Buriganga River, Bangladesh The mighty Buriganga River, responsible for
feeding and supplying the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, is now threatening thousands of
locals as it's now the most polluted river in Bangladesh.
Industrial waste such as oil, metallic particles, and human waste including untreated sewage
now dominates the city's waterways and are causing a life threatening level of toxins.
Environmental experts say that the river was once a highly reliable source of energy and
fuel to the people, wildlife, and the general city of Dhaka.
Really, it took environmental experts to figure that one out?
According to the Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority about 420,000 cubic feet of untreated
waste are released every day.
Textile industries annually discharge as much as 56 million tons of waste and 0.5 million
tons of sludge.
Sewage is also released into the Buriganga.
Because of Dhaka's heavy reliance on river transport for goods, including food, the Buriganga
receives especially high amounts of food waste since unusable or rotting portions of fruits,
vegetables, and fish are thrown into the river.
The waterway is simply used by industry giants for nothing else but as a place to dump their
chemical and metallic waste.
It's been said that the pollution has become so bad that any living organism within the
river has died out.
In a wide stretch of the river, the contents of the water have turned the river into a
stream of, what's described as, a thick, black gel-like consistency.
As a result, local lives have been put at risk due to their reliance on this major waterway,
with malnutrition taking effect, and a spread of diseases infecting many who rely on its
water.
4 - La Oroya, Peru This long-time mining town in Peru suffers
with an atmosphere highly clogged with toxic fumes.
Peru's very own 'Clean Air' campaigners have listed the town as being in critical
condition.
Dangerous smelting and constructing of poly-metallic products are carried out in the town's giant
US-owned plant, Doe Run Peru, which pumps out large amounts of harmful lead.
Along with the harmful lead, 27,000 parts of sulphur dioxide are also pumped into the
air for the citizens to breathe in.
As a result of years of pollution, the hills immediately around the smelting operations
have become completely barren, the river became more toxic, and the health of area inhabitants
suffered.
Residents have been found to have alarmingly high concentrations of lead in their blood
and in the drinking water, and many have bronchial troubles.
A 1999 study showed high levels of air pollution in La Oroya, with 85 times more arsenic, 41
times more cadmium, and 13 times more lead than amounts generally considered safe.
3 - Niger Delta, Nigeria The Niger delta is at the heart of Nigeria's
oil industry, as 2 million barrels of oil are sourced by the mines every single day.
So it's unsurprising that there are side effects from producing oil near a water source.
The Department of Petroleum Resources estimated 1.89 million barrels of petroleum were spilled
into the Niger Delta between 1976 and 1996 in 4,835 incidents.
However, reports on the extent of the oil spills vary.
A United Nations Development Programme report states that there have been a total of 6,817
oil spills between 1976 and 2001, which account for a loss of three million barrels of oil,
of which more than 70% was not recovered.
Anyways, spillages, fires, and contaminations are commonplace and obviously take a huge
effect.
The oil pollution in the water can be seen for miles; a huge rainbow decorates the river
surface, while a majority of the river's water is left black.
The spillage has a major impact on the ecosystem as immense tracts of mangrove forests, which
are especially susceptible to oil have been destroyed.
The rainforest that previously occupied some 2800 square miles of land has disappeared
as well.
Wow, that's just insane…….
Spills in populated areas often spread out over a wide area, destroying crops and aquacultures
through contamination of the groundwater and soils.
The consumption of dissolved oxygen by bacteria feeding on the spilled hydrocarbons also contributes
to the death of fish.
In agricultural communities, often a year's supply of food can be destroyed instantaneously.
Because of the careless nature of oil operations in the Delta, the environment is growing increasingly
uninhabitable.
2 - Linfen, China Found in the Shanxi Province in Northeast
China, Linfen is argued as the most polluted city in the world.
A mass of coal mines opened in the city in 1978 and ever since then, coal has been highly
sought after by everyone around.
Coal is still the leader in fuel choices for many places, and it's not any different
for this city as coal is still dominant in the city.
Because of the pollution, there has been an increase in cases of pneumonia and bronchitis
– not to mention a huge rise in lung cancer – being reported in local hospitals.
However, from its low point in 2004, with only fifteen days out of the year with an
acceptable level of air pollution, the environmental situation has improved in Linfen.
After a series of negative reports on the extreme level of pollution in the city, efforts
were made to clean up the air.
Substandard mines were closed.
Coal trucks were kept from entering the city, resulting in much less coal dust.
The city has also switched much of its heating source from coal to gas.
197 large coal-fired boilers and more than 600 smaller, boilers were decommissioned.
1 - Chernobyl Exclusion Zone There's simply no escaping it, Chernobyl
is simply the most contaminated and dangerously polluted place in the world.
In 1986 Chernobyl's nuclear power station disastrously blew up because of faulty nuclear
reactors.
Because of the magnitude of the radioactive blast, farmland as far as the UK were even
contaminated by a rain of nuclear fallout.
The Exclusion Zone covers an area of approximately 1,000 square miles in Ukraine, which immediately
surrounds the Chernobyl nuclear power plant where radioactive contamination from fallout
is highest and public access and inhabitation are restricted.
The radiation level in ground zero is still very much at a critical level and can potentially
cause mass radiation poisoning and cancer.
The Exclusion Zone's purpose is to restrict access to hazardous areas, reduce the spread
of radiological contamination and conduct radiological and ecological monitoring activities.
The pollution within the zone is so bad that it's supposedly completely uninhabitable,
and recent studies are still showing signs of mutations in bugs and wildlife that live
nearby.
However, the zone is estimated to be home to 197 people living in 11 villages.
This number is in decline, down from previous estimates of 314 in 2007 and 1,200 in 1986.
These residents are senior citizens, with an average age of 63.
After many attempts at expulsion, Ukrainian authorities became reconciled to their presence
and have allowed them limited supporting services.
Residents are now informally permitted to stay by the Ukrainian government.
Today the Exclusion Zone remains one of the most radioactively contaminated areas in the
world and draws significant scientific interest for the high levels of radiation exposure
in the environment, as well as increasing interest from tourists.
Seriously, who'd want to visit?!
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