Almost half of world’s worst polluted places are in Asia

The Blacksmith Institute recently announced their annual review of the most polluted places in the world, all with severe human health risks . Download their report to read more details on each site. Almost half of the sites are located in Asia. In the Top Ten list, 4 locations are in Asia:

• Linfen, China (Particulates and gases from industry and traffic)
• Tianying, China (Heavy metals and particulates from industry)
• Sukinda, India (Hexavalent chromium from chromite mines)
• Vapi, India (Wide variety of industry effluents from industrial estates)

The Top Ten sites were selected from 30 sites known as the Dirty Thirty, and the Dirty Thirty were selected from 70 sites. In the Dirty Thirty list, 14 locations are in Asia:

• 6 from China (Linfen, Tianying, Wanshan, Huaxi, Lanzhou and Urumqi)
• 4 from India (Sukinda, Vapi, Ranipet and Mahad Industrial Estate)
• 2 from Kyrgyzstan (Mailuu-Suu and Ust-Kamenogorsk)
• 1 from Bangladesh (Hazarib’g)
• 1 from Philippines (Meycauayan City and Marilao)

The bulk of the polluted sites in Asia are located in China and India. Both countries are the two fastest growing economies in Asia but economic growth should not be at the expense of human health. They should remember that ”there is no business to be done on a dead planet”.

Source: Blacksmith Institute. Photo credit: sheilaz413.

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