The World's 10 Worst Cities

Arsenic-laced drinking water, lead-contaminated soils and choking air pollution are sadly just the start in some of the world's dirtiest places

Linfen, China: This city of more than four million is in the heart of Shanxi, China’s coal-production hub, and has frequently been deemed the most polluted city in the world; citizens suffer from choking clouds of coal dust as well as drinking water polluted with arsenic. But Linfen is not the only city in the country with environmental woes—the World Bank estimates that 16 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities are found in China’s industrial areas. Photo by andi808

You may already know about the pollution plight of Linfen, China. But how about the heavy metals Pittsburghers breathe in on a daily basis? Or the incomparable smog Milanesi put up with? PopSci has culled an eye-opening selection of some of the world's most problematic cities. From the painfully high cancer rates in Sumgayit, Azerbaijan to the acid rain destroying La Oroya, Peru, writer Jason Daley will walk you through the lowest of the low; and explain why, despite it all, there's still hope for these places.

For the full list, launch the gallery here.

And check out PopSci's complete coverage of the future of the environment at popsci.com/futurecity.

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That is pretty pathetic. We have a planet to live on so what do we do we wreck it.
the.nerd.herd.group.googlepages.com

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That is pretty pathetic. We have a planet to live on so what do we do we wreck it.
the.nerd.herd.group.googlepages.com

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I really don't get Pittsburgh being on this list. So much amazing work has been done to clean up the city since the end of the steel era. Its a beautiful, clean, and green place to live and work.

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I'm sorry, but information about Brazil is wrong.

It's been more than 15 years that Cubatao Valley is not the most poluted place in Brazil. In the early 80's there was plenty of health problems due to a failure in planing the valley occupation rules.

Since the 80's plenty of new regulations and incentives made possible to the city to receive the ONU prize for Environment Recuperation Symbol City. Today, although poluted is very far from being one of the most poluted places in Brazil.

Another misinformation is about Tiete river and Cubatao river, although close to each other (about 50 miles) Tiete river flows into the continent, while Cubatao river flows into the sea.

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I am incredibly disappointed in PopSci for placing Pittsburgh on this list. Clearly, none of you have ever been to the city. If you had, you would know it to be, arguably, the cleanest major city in the country. The designation as America's dirtiest city was a joke to begin with, since it was based off of ONE sensor in the city that sits downwind of the largest coke plant in North America (which, incidently, is in the process of a $1 billion dollar upgrade). Subtracting that one sensor, air quality in Pittsburgh is quite, quite good.

I also love the picture they found of the city, showing conditions that frankly haven't existed in Pittsburgh in 25 years. At least the authors admitted the obvious fact that most of the pollution that is in the city is from begin (surprise!) downwind of Ohio.

If you want to see what Pittsburgh really looks like, go here: http://www.lewis-clark.org/content/content-article.asp?ArticleID=2965, or here: http://pittsburgh.about.com/library/graphics/pittsburgh_2-800.jpg.

Is that one of the ten dirtiest cities in the world?!

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Once again proving that journalists will create their own narrative in order to substantiate their idea. It takes 2 seconds to follow the link of the Pittsburgh photo to see that the photographer called this Pittsburgh skyline photo "pittsburgh under an unusual morning fog". And if they had looked at any other pictures in this person's flickr account other than the one they selected (with fog, not smog), they'd see an entirely different Pittsburgh than the one they're trying to peddle.

As a resident, it drives me crazy that the world's impression of my city is driven by someone who's probably never been here, or has and fudges it to drive his/her point. I've not been to the other cities in this list, but I can only imagine that they are similarly misrepresented, or at least not as bad as the author's screed suggests.

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Wheres the science? Images picked from Flickr?

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I live in Pittsburgh and travel extensively for work. Absolutely no sensible comparison can be made on any level between Pittsburgh and the other cities on this list. Sure a comparison could be made 50 years ago, but not today. According to the EPA Air Quality / Hazardous Air Pollutants, Pittsburgh (Allegheny County) ranks better than 50 other counties including, Los Angeles, Phoenix (Maricopa County), Chicago (Cook County) and Cleveland (Cuyahoga County). Seems the popsci staff got lazy on this one.

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This is the exact reason I canceled my subscription to the magazine. There is no balance. The editors of Pop Sci have accepted as fact that our human population is the soul cause of global warming. Pittsburgh one of the ten dirtiest places on earth? Please!

I for one would like to see the alternative explanations for climate change including solar periods, volcanic activity, and other cyclical, natural periods. But that will not happen. Do humans pollute their environment? Yes. Are we the soul cause of all the climatic changes taking place on earth? Hardly.

By the way, I notice that they have not stopped taking advertisements from oil companies, automobile companies, and others associated with our alleged destruction of the planet. So much for courage. Real believers would go out and solicit ads from those very successful green companies. Tap their profits. But then I think we all know how that would turn out.

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where is the actual article? how do i view it???

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