The "I Trust My Legs" gold mine in Ghana is a local affair, where miners shift silt from rudimentary pits and then combine it with mercury. The element (a toxic metal that can cause brain damage) captures all the gold in the dirt and then, when the mixture is heated, dissipates into the air, leaving just gold bits behind. Unfortunately, in what is known as artisanal mining, the mercury also enters the lungs of miners, their families and others nearby. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) estimates that some 15 million miners, their families and neighbors (including 4.5 million women and 600,000 children) are affected by the fumes, which are known to cause brain damage and even death.

Such gold mining is just one of world's most pressing global pollution problems, according to the Blacksmith Institute, an environmental health group based in New York City. Among the others: air pollution in homes from cooking, industrial smog in cities, untreated sewage, metal smelting and the recycling of lead (which causes brain damage) from old batteries.

"We reviewed the broad stretch of different kinds of pollution problems that show up around the world and evaluated them according to their gross health risk," says Blacksmith founder Richard Fuller. "We have exported our industry overseas and there are no pollution controls in these places or they are terribly inadequate. So you end up with toxic hot spots."

The institute and its panel of 19 experts analyzed more than 600 such toxic hot spots and the problems they pose; they then evaluated these issues on the toxicity of the pollutant in question, its effect on humans, and the overall number of people impacted.

The top 10, in alphabetical order, are: artisanal gold mining; contaminated surface water; contaminated groundwater; indoor air pollution; metals smelting and processing; industrial mining; radioactive waste and uranium mining; untreated sewage; urban air quality; and used lead–acid battery recycling.

Slide Show: Living with World's Worst Pollution

It is not just the workers in each of these areas who face the biggest threat, but rather the women of child-bearing age and their children, Fuller says. "Children are not just mini-adults. They are, in fact, growing and are much more susceptible to environmental pollutants than adults."

He notes that the lead released during the course of lead–acid battery recycling ups the levels in children's blood to 50 to 100 micrograms per deciliter, or as much as 10 times higher than levels deemed safe by the World Health Organization. Each 10 microgram per deciliter rise in lead levels lowers intelligence levels by four to seven points on IQ tests, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Many of these problems, including untreated sewage and urban air pollution, have either been solved or diminished in the developed world, and there's no reason they couldn't also be solved in the developing world, Fuller says. "It's a doable, solvable problem."

6 Comments

1. 1. Nathaniel 06:38 PM 10/26/08

   Eliminate sewage altogether by adopting composting toilets and grey water recycling. The grey water could either be used for irrigation or processed in a similar fashion to how sewage is processed now. Since black water (containing human waste) is no longer in the system, it's much cleaner and easier to process. Basically we can all reduce water use, eliminate water contamination from human excriment, save the city a ton of money on waste water processing, and get free fertilizer. The city can even offer a free compost collection service, then turn around and sell the compost to farmers. Just doing that will eliminate a ton of polution.

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2. 2. eco-steve 06:33 AM 10/28/08

   I take it when you quote smog in cities, you include smoke particles in indoor kitchen fires, which are one of the worlds most important pollutants, causing millions of lung conditions?

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3. 3. eco-steve 06:36 AM 10/28/08

   In addition, kitchen smoke-related disease can be eliminated by adopting charcoal burners, thereby avoiding what are in reality thousands of millions of sick children and adults.

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4. 4. urichj 12:36 PM 11/19/08

   regarging the smalter at La Oroya, you failed to mention that the Peruvian govrnemnt owned that plant for 20+ years and literally ran it into the ground. Since Doe Run purchased the plant they have invested hundreds of millions of dollars on the air and water pollution measures. They have installed three water treatment plants where none existed before, and they have installed dozens of air pollution control devices. They are emiting less that 1/3 of what was being elited under the government's control. Additionally they are under increasing pressure from the Peruvian government to do even more. To say there is no oversight is irresponsible and misleading.

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5. 5. reace 09:49 AM 5/12/10

   i think we should take more care of our enviroment.

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6. 6. harmoniousliving in reply to Nathaniel 03:29 PM 5/24/11

   i like your views on this subject. i am researching a paper on global pollution and would like to discuss this particular area of recycling. if interested please reply to my profile... thank you
   

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