Top 10 most polluted places in the world

[Judi Lynn]

Top 10 most polluted places in the world

The Russian region of Chelyabinsk, blighted by decades of nuclear waste dumping and accidents, has embarked on a controversial campaign to clean up its image on the internet.

By Andrew Osborn
7:34PM BST 26 Jul 2011

Here is a list of the ten most polluted places in the world.

1. Linfen, China: Industry based on local coal and other resources has resulted in the worst air quality in China. There are high incidences of respiratory and skin diseases and lung cancer.

2. Tianying, China: Heavy industry means that the average lead content in the air and soil are up to 10 times higher than national standards. Children suffer from birth defects and developmental challenges.

3. Sukinda, India: Waste rock and untreated water from local mines seeps into local water supplies. The air and soils are also heavily affected.

4. Vapi, India: More than 50 industrial estates discharge heavy metals, pesticides, and chemical waste. Mercury in the groundwater is 96 times higher than World Health Organisation standards. Very high incidences of cancer and birth complications have resulted.

5. La Oroya, Peru: Metal mining and smelting has caused significant lead contamination. Blood lead levels for children are on average triple World Health Organisation limits.

More:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8663878/Top-10-most-polluted-places-in-the-world.html

The hideous pollution at La Oroya, Peru comes from a monstrous company owned by an American, Ira Rennert, whose home in the Hamptons, has been viewed as the largest private home in this country.

Rennert's Wiki:

Ira Leon Rennert (born 1934, Brooklyn, New York) is a American investor and businessman. Using junk bonds to finance his acquisitions of companies, often in bankruptcy, Rennert has amassed significant holdings in basic, cyclical industries, such as mining and metals, including lead smelters, coal mines, magnesium producers and vehicle assembly lines. Today he controls one of the nation’s largest privately held industrial empires, and his personal fortune is estimated to be $20.3 billion.

http://upload.wikimedia.org.nyud.net:8090/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/81/IMG_0939a.jpg/800px-IMG_0939a.jpg

Rennert's home.

Environmental concernsRennert was awarded the The Awful Truth Man of Year Award in 1999 by filmmaker Michael Moore, based on a 1996 EPA Report which lists Magnesium Corporation of America as the top single polluting industrial facility in the United States and a second EPA report from the same year which lists Renco Group as the top most polluting parent company (based on total on-site and off-site releases). Doe Run Peru continues to elicit tremendous controversy and criticism. Despite over $100 million of investment in pollution reduction, the site remains heavily polluted and the impact on the local population is severe.

United StatesFor more detailed information, go to Doe Run Company.

The Renco Group's environmental record has been mixed. In 1998 the EPA placed Renco Group business holdings 10th on the nation's largest polluter list primarily because of emissions from US Magnesium in Utah (formerly MagCorp).<10> (US Magnesium was purchased by Renco in 1989 in the year in which its emissions peaked at 119,000 tons per year.)<11> By 1998, the year the Renco was placed on the EPA list, Renco had reduced emissions at US Magnesium by 50%.<12> By 2005, the most recent year of data released by the EPA, emissions had been reduced by 97%.<12>

In 2001, the Justice Department and EPA took action against Renco, filing suit against the company. The agencies demanded nearly $1 billion in fines, alleging MagCorp (a Renco Metals Inc. subsidiary) dumped toxic waste in ditches and ponds on the Great Salt Lake, Utah.<13> The suit claimed PCB-laced sludge and dust choked the plant's plumbing, wastewater ponds, landfill and ditches, where contaminants were 12 times the allowed limit for accidental release.<13> MagCorp maintained it was exempt from the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which requires companies to monitor certain kinds of hazardous waste.<13> Magcorp declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy shortly after the lawsuit began and a federal judge allowed Rennert to restructure MagCorp — now U.S. Magnesium — which exempted it from previous legal liability.<14> The EPA suit, however, remained outstanding until October 2007 when a federal judge ruled against the EPA and the Justice Department and in favor of Renco and MagCorp / US Magnesium.<15>

Today, U.S. Magnesium is the third largest magnesium producer in the world. US Magnesium’s environmental improvements and recent track record have been substantial and include a reduction of emissions by 90% since 2000 (97% since 1989).<12> The EPA data recognizes this as the single largest reduction in air emissions in the category of hazardous air pollutants since the TRI began in 1987 at any single facility.<16> Also, the energy improvements in US Magnesium’s manufacturing process caused a net reduction of 100,000 tons per year of carbon dioxide emissions.<16> US Magnesium was the recipient of a 2004 Climate Protection Award from the EPA.<17> and won an MEP award in 2006 for Environmental Consciousness.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Rennert

http://www.sulphuric-acid.com.nyud.net:8090/sulphuric-acid-on-the-web/acid%20plants/Doe%20Run%20Peru%20-%20La%20Oroya%202.jpg

http://carloshuertaz.files.wordpress.com.nyud.net:8090/2008/08/ninosdeplomo.jpg http://www.actualidadambiental.pe.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/drp_1.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_m6tzT33wRls/So9z3wqsGBI/AAAAAAAABgI/CqeVPAX9epo/s400/peru_oroya_premio_periodista_foto.jpg

They do their liquid dumps into the river at night when people can't see it.
Gasping for Clean Air in La Oroya
By Milagros Salazar

~snip~
Irene Caso Huerta, a 32-year-old mother of six, is a tragic illustration of the problem. Four of her children were found to have lead levels of between 33 and 91 mcg/dl.

The highest level was found in her youngest, Stuart, who at a year and a half is smaller than the average one-year-old, and who is hyperactive and suffers chronic malnutrition.

"My children are normal. They're not 'mongólicos' (retards) or stutterers, like the NGOs say. My Stuart is even mischievous, and he only gets sick to his stomach sometimes," Irene tells IPS, belying the concern in her eyes.

"I was born here and I must be more ‘leaded' than they are," she says, pointing to the smokestack that is a permanent fixture of the landscape in La Oroya.

More:
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35822

[Make7]

1. I wonder if things like that are why we have the EPA? ( n/t )

[valerief]

2. Do we actually still have the EPA? I thought they stopped funding it. nt

[Make7]

3. Maybe not for long if the GOP gets their way. Perhaps then we'll make the list in the OP. ( n/t )