(Photo by: A6U571N)

That’s right, some of these places are so badly polluted in so many different areas that it is equivalent to smoking packs of cigarettes, or you have to wear gas masks. Isn’t it sad that we’ve ruined some places of our planet so badly it’s killing us?

The Huffington Post has released a small summary of the most polluted places on Earth. The 9 most polluted places on the planet are (in no particular order):

1. Linfen, China: Spending one day here is equivalent to smoking 3 packs of cigarettes a day. If you leave laundry out to dry, it will turn black before it’s done mainly due to coal contamination.

2. Los Angeles, U.S.A: 9,200 premature deaths in California are due to air pollution, the worst of all American cities is L.A.

3. Niger Delta, Nigeria: With 6,800 Oil Spills, this place is one of the worst oil-contaminated wetland in the world.

4. Greater London, United Kingdom: The life expectancy of residents here has dropped 9 years due to air pollution. Approximately 50,000 people die a year prematurely due to man-made air pollution

5. Dzerzhinsk, Russia: The city’s death rate surpassed it’s birth rate by 260 percent. This city’s contamination is largely due to improperly thrown away chemicals during the Cold War Era.

6. Greater Phoenix, U.S.A: For year round air pollution, this city was voted worst for 2010.

7. Bandung, Indonesia: With 5 million people living near Citrum, their main water supply and the most polluted river on the planet, it’s no wonder health issues ensue.

8. La Oroya, Peru: A mining town, with 99% of the children having blood levels that surpass the average limits of exposure to contamination

9. Lake Karachay, Russia: A nuclear weapons production city, has enough radioactivity in it that an hour of exposure is lethal. To make matters worse, it has leaked into the groundwater supply.

What do you think about this list? Do you live in any of these places? How do you think we can solve the problem, or at least prevent it from getting worse?

Comment Away!