- Bah, hello everybody. Welcome back to the madness. Speaking of madness, have you
guys heard of the Fact Maniac? No, let me tell ya 'bout him. It's actually a completely separate brand that I just recently started where I post daily amazing facts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I created it as a way to continue giving you guys amazing facts
daily in between these videos. Check out the links in the description, and start following Fact Maniac now. Okay, let's get into the video. Nobody likes pollution in their city, and to some degree,
everyone complains about it. Smog, trash, all of the above suck. But if you think your city has issues, those are extremely minor problems compared to the cities on this list. Here are the 10 most
polluted cities on Earth. (Indian music) Number 10 is Onitsha, Nigeria. Onitsha is a port city in Nigeria with over one million citizens. In 2016, the city had the
world's highest recording of pollutant particles called PM10, which is particulate matter that is 10 microns per measurement. Being the biggest port on the Niger River, Onitsha is often plagued
by clouds of diesel smoke from transport ships that pollute the air, along with emissions from old cars, which are abundant in the city, and heaps of trash being burned outdoors. But hey, if the air doesn't convince you to be wary of this place, the
water contamination might. Tests of the city's water
found pollution from, you might wanna make sure
you're sitting down for this, garbage dumps, industrial waste, sewage, hospital waste, metal industry
wastes, and fuel spills. Oh, gimme some of that good
good yum yum (slurping). The water has gained unhealthy levels of arsenic, mercury, and lead, as well as lots of other metals. Number nine is Gwalior, India. (Indian music) Gwalior is a major city in India, with a population of over 1.9 million. According to the World
Health Organization, it's the most polluted
city in the country. The air quality in the city
contains 176 micrograms of ultra-fine PM2.5
particles per cubic meter, which is horrible when you consider the WHO's recommended
value is 10 micrograms. The pollution mostly
comes from widespread use of outdated diesel-fueled motor vehicles, as well as the use of coal
for heating in large buildings and fueling their power plants. Other environmental factors, like roads in disrepair
and hotter temperatures, create dust in the air, while a lack of vegetation leads to less clean air being recycled back. The terrible air quality has contributed to the rise in lung problems, like asthma and chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease. Not exactly a place you
wanna go vacation at. Number eight is Mailuu-suu, Kyrgyzstan. (Indian music) Mailuu-suu, Kyrgyzstan was the site of a uranium plant which
operated from 1946 until 1968, processing 10,000 metric tons
of uranium for atomic bombs. But while it wasn't all used
for world ending explosives, that radioactive material is still stored in unstable locations, which are threatened by
earthquakes and landslides. These sites have already
caused contamination disasters. In April of 2005, a landslide introduced 300,000 cubic meters of the
mining waste into their river. If the rest of the
material falls into rivers, or is swallowed by landslides, it could devastate the lush
and populous areas around it. The cancer rates in Meiluu-Suu are double that of the
rest of the country, and while Kyrgyzstan has made
attempts to secure the waste, the danger of more environmental
catastrophe still persists. Number seven is La Oroya, Peru. (Indian music) La Oroya is a city of 24,000 people, with a large mining
and processing industry that causes toxic
chemicals to enter the air, vegetation to wither and die, and sickness in the population. An astonishing 99% of
children living there have high levels of lead in their blood, and deaths linked to toxic
gases and lung diseases are a regular issue for
the workers and residents. A large amount of this pollution comes from an American-owned
smelting plant near the population center that releases chemicals into the air. Extremely high sulfur
dioxide content in the air from these plants causes acid rain, which has killed most
of the local plant life. Toxic lead waste emitted from the industrial processing plants will stay in the city's
soil for hundreds of years, meaning revitalization
will be nearly impossible for this Peruvian wasteland. This place makes the smog in LA feel like a fresh ocean breeze. Number six is Xingtai, China. (Indian music) Xingtai is the city with the
worst air pollution in China. Thick smog often blankets the area, and the air tastes faintly of
petrol, even on a clear day. Xingtai is home to over 7,100,000 people and is a heavily industrialized city, producing an astounding 20 million metric tons of coal each year, and housing the region's
biggest coal-fueled power plant. Yeah, but the problems don't end there, as several plants have been
under criminal investigation for leaking toxic waste
and harmful chemicals into their water and soil. Some days, the city's residents are forced to actually stay indoors, cranking air purifiers and monitoring their air quality by phone app. Children actually have
to wear masks at school, and are discouraged
from outdoor activities in an effort to avoid
contracting tuberculosis. Number five is Chernobyl, Ukraine. (Indian music) On April 26th, 1986,
Chernobyl became the site of the worst nuclear disaster ever when a nuclear power plant
experienced a meltdown and irradiated more than
2,590 square kilometers. Despite the highly
radioactive environment, around 700 people still live in and around the outskirts
of the inclusion zone, which was evacuated by the government to avoid radiation-related deaths. Workers and researchers
still spend their days decommissioning the plant, and studying the effects of the fallout. Citizens in the area still experience the effect from Chernobyl's radioactivity, with cancer rates skyrocketing
and birth defects, skin damage, and respiratory
issues being commonplace. Chernobyl won't be safe
for another 20,000 years, but the natives, administrative workers, and mutated wildlife still call it home. Number four is Linfen, China. (Indian music) Linfen has undergone
decades of air pollution from the booming coal
industry in the area. The sky there is commonly
obscured by gray, ashy smog, that is largely created by the numerous coal mining operations and coal burning power plants. The coal ash pollution is so bad that hanging your laundry out to dry can cause it to literally turn black. A member of Linfen's
4,300,000 person population has a life expectancy of 10 years younger than China's national
average, which is 76. In terms of geology, Linfen is in a bad spot to
deal with its situation, lying in a basin surrounded by mountains, where airflow is stifled, resulting in the toxic air pollution
not disappearing naturally. If China wants blue skies
across their countryside, they'll have to lay off the coal. Number three is Zabol, Iran. (Indian music) Zabol is home to over 130,600 people, all of whom happen to live in one of the most polluted
cities in the whole world. Zabol's pollution problem may not be what you expect, though. In 2016, the World Health Organization ranked Zabol as the most
polluted city in the world, based on a measurement of
fine particles in the air. The city's air pollution is caused by their
annual Wind of 120 Days, a massive dust storm caused
by strong winds that start in late May and continue all
he way until late September. Think about that. That's a dust storm that
lasts an entire four months. If I have a little bit
of dust in my bedroom, I'm like (sneezing and wheezes). Every year, the storm gets worse because of the disappearance
of the nearby wetland, which served to cool down the area but now adds more dust to the storm. Because of the harsh pollution, more than 500 residents are diagnosed with tuberculosis every year. Number two is Delhi, India. (Indian music) In 2014, the World Health Organization named India's capital city, Delhi, the most polluted city in the world. This city's 11 million inhabitants are effected by the dense
smog of air pollutants so badly that 10,500 of
them die every year from it, while countless others contract
lung cancer and asthma. Health experts say that
breathing the air in Delhi is like smoking 40 cigarettes a day. During particularly bad smog alerts, the government will shut
down construction projects, power plants, and schools
for a matter of days, in order to curb some of
the pollutant's effects. Those pollutants come from the high concentration
of vehicles in this city, along with emissions
from industrial sectors, construction, and crop burning smoke. There's literally no end
in sight, or way to tell, when Delhi's air will become
safe to breathe again. And number one is Dzerzhinsk, Russia. (Indian music) Dzerzhinsk is a city
with over 240,000 people, that has been named by the
Guinness Book of World Records as the most chemically
polluted city on Earth. The chemical pollution can be attributed to the manufacturing of chemical weapons during the Cold War. Things like sarin, VX, and mustard gas were produced in the city, and other chemicals, like
acetone and methylamine, are still in production. Between 1930 and 1998,
over 272,000 metric tons of dangerous toxins and chemicals were illegally dumped in the city, contaminating the water and soil with enough toxins to send
the population death rate 260% higher than the birth rate in 2003. To put it into perspective, the average male citizen of Dzerzhinsk has a life expectancy of
just 42 years, and women, 47. So wherever you live, if
it's not on this list, be thankful. And that's it. If you enjoyed this video and you'd like to see more
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I'll see you in the next one. Bye-bye now.
