EFFETTI DEL NUCLEARE
Roma, gennaio 2008.
Riportiamo un art. di "Scientific American" relativo ad uno studio americano
che ha individuato i 10 luoghi più inquinati della Terra.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=worlds-top-10-most-polluted- places&page=1
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=FFFCB503-E7F2-99DF-3C67B106B2D76E59&page=2
Al secondo posto c'è Chernobyl (5.5 milioni di persone coinvolte), nonostante
Superquark e Piero Angela.
E nel silenzio di "Le Scienze", edizione italiana di "Scientific American",
dell'associazione "Galileo 2001" e della stragrande maggioranza dei media
italiani.
Collegandosi al sito di "Scientific American", di cui ai link indicati qui
sopra, è possibile vedere alcune sconvolgenti fotografie, fra cui quella di un
bambino orfano, di nome Sasha. Una vittima di Chernobyl.
Nella lista dei "Dirty 30" c'è anche Mayak, sito nucleare russo che ha
contaminato con Plutonio il fiume Techa che attraversa la città russa di
Muslyomova.
Saluti.
Coordinamento dei Comitati di Roma Nord.
News - September 13, 2007
World's Top 10 Most Polluted Places
Russia, China and India contain the most areas where toxic pollution and human
habitation collide with devastating effects
By David Biello
Sumqayit in Azerbaijan gained the dubious distinction this week of being added
to Blacksmith Institute's top 10 list of the world's most polluted sites. Yet
another heir to the toxic legacy of Soviet industry, the city of 275,000 souls
bears heavy metal, oil and chemical contamination from its days as a center of
chemical production. As a result, local Azeris suffer cancer rates 22 to 51
percent higher than their countrymen and their children suffer from a host of
genetic defects ranging from mental retardation to bone
diseases.
"As much as 120,000 tons of harmful emissions were released on an annual basis,
including mercury," says Richard Fuller, founder of Blacksmith, an environmental
health organization based in New York City. "There are huge untreated dumps of
industrial sludge."
Fuller says the list includes "places that are highly polluted in the developing
world, where children are dying in droves or living with chronic disease… areas
of desolation and disgust at what man has wrought." Joining Sumqayit as the
worst polluted: Chernobyl, Ukraine — The fallout from the world's worst nuclear
power
accident continues to accumulate, affecting as many as 5.5 million people and
leading to a sharp rise in thyroid cancer. The incident has also blighted the
economic prospects of surrounding areas and nations. "Belarus is very
agricultural," says Stephan Robinson, a director at Green Cross Switzerland, an
environmental group that collaborated on the report. "Through Chernobyl, they
lost access to world markets for their produce."
Dzerzinsk, Russia — A center of Cold War chemical manufacturing, the city's
300,000 residents have one of the lowest life expectancies in the world thanks
to waste injected directly into the ground. "Average life expectancy is roughly
45 years," Robinson says. "Fifteen to 20 years less than the Russian average and
about half a Westerner's."
Kabwe, Zambia — The second largest city in this southern African country was
home to one of the world's largest lead smelters until 1987. As a result, the
entire city is contaminated with the heavy metal, which can cause brain and
nerve damage in children and fetuses. "Measurements of children's blood levels
of lead average
over 50 micrograms per deciliter and some were over 100," Fuller says. "For
every 10 points above 10 micrograms per deciliter [(the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control standard for treatment)] that your blood level goes up, your IQ drops."
La Oroya, Peru — Although this is one of the smallest communities on the list (population
35,000) it is also one of the most heavily polluted due to lead, copper and zinc
mining by U.S.-based Doe Run mining company.
Linfen, China — a city in the heart of China's coal region in Shanxi Province,
its three million inhabitants choke on dust and drink arsenic that leaches from
the fossil fuel. In addition, "it is difficult to see," Robinson says, "the air
is heavily polluted."
Norilsk, Russia — This city above the Arctic Circle contains the world's largest
metal smelting complex and, therefore, some of the world's worst smog. "There is
so much pollution going into the air from this place that there is no living
piece of grass or shrub within 30 kilometers of the city," Fuller says. "Contamination
[with
heavy metals] has been found as much as 60 kilometers away."
Sukinda, India — Home to one of the world's largest chromite mines— used to make
steel stainless, among other things—and 2.6 million people, the waters of this
valley contain carcinogenic hexavalent chromium compounds courtesy of 30 million
tons of waste rock lining the Brahmani River. "Hexavalent chromium is very toxic
and very
mobile," notes David Hanrahan, Blacksmith's London-based director of global
programs.
Tianying, China — The center of Chinese lead production, this town of 160,000
qualifies as one of the eight most polluted areas in the country, according to
the Chinese government. Lead concentrations in the air and soil are 8.5 to 10
times above national health standards and lead dusts local crops at levels 24
times higher than such health
standards.
Vapi, India — This town at the end of India's industrial belt in the state of
Gujarat houses the dumped remnant waste of more than 1,000 manufacturers,
including petrochemicals, pesticides, pharmaceuticals and other chemicals. "The
companies treat wastewater and get most of the muck out," Hanrahan says. "But
there's nowhere to put the muck, so it ends up getting dumped."
Blacksmith Institute compiled the list, which extends to 20 more sites in the "Dirty
30," by comparing the toxicity of the contamination, the likelihood of it
getting into humans and the number of people affected. Places were bumped up in
rank if children were impacted. No U.S. or European sites made the list thanks
to a mop-up of lingering human health hazards over the past several decades, but
that does not mean the developed world is not a contributor. "The nickel we use
in our cars or elsewhere is likely to
have come from Norilsk," Fuller notes. "And some of the lead in our car
batteries will have come from one of these places."
Despite the massive pollution, it would be relatively easy and cheap to clean up
the most dangerous hazards at these contaminated sites, Fuller argues. Economic
development has already led to construction of cleaner new plants in some places
and small efforts and investments can net major gains, he says.
For example, it costs just $15,000 to save an estimated 350 lives by simply
digging up radioactive contaminated soil from the Mayak plutonium facility that
had been deposited on the shore of the Techa River in the Russian town of
Muslyomova. Similar cost-effective efforts are underway across the globe. "For
about $200, the cost of a
refrigerator, we are able to save someone's life," Fuller says, citing a recent
Blacksmith analysis conducted with the help of Mount Sinai School of Medicine
and Hunter College in New York City as well as Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore. "Small amounts of money have gone an awfully long way to cleaning
some of these up."
But there are also many sites this survey likely overlooks; Fuller
conservatively estimates that, at worst, they have captured only one third of
the world's most polluted areas because of spotty coverage in central Asia and
Central and South America. After all, Sumqayit made the list this year for the
first time. "We were quite
surprised," he admits, "to have new additions to the list that we'd never heard
of."