The 2008 Top Ten List of World's Worst Pollution Problems

Each year, the Blacksmith Institute in collaboration with Green Cross Switzerland issues a Top Ten list of the world's most dangerous pollution problems.  Environmental pollution is one of the major contributing factors to death and disability in the world, with children suffering disproportionately from the effects.   

The Top Ten list includes well-known problems like urban air pollution, but also threats that receive less attention, like car battery recycling.  

The report focuses on problems with significant impact on human health worldwide, resulting in death, persistent illness, and neurological impairment for millions of people, particularly children.  The report explains how many of these deaths and related illnesses could be avoided with affordable and effective interventions.

Remediation is cost-effective

"Our goal with the 2008 report is to increase awareness of the severe toll that pollution takes on human health and inspire the international community to act," said Richard Fuller, founder of Blacksmith Institute. "Remediation is both possible and cost-effective."

Basic themes of global pollution

The pollution problems highlighted in the Top Ten report concentrate around four basic themes:

• Polluted air (indoor air pollution and urban air quality) 
  
• Polluted water sources (contaminated surface water, surface water pollution and untreated sewage)
  
• Mining and related activities (industrial mining activities and radioactive uranium mines) 
  
• Lesser-known pollution problems (used lead acid battery recycling, smelters, and mercury pollution as a result of artisanal gold mining).

Uncontrolled pollution problems are found mostly in the developing world.  They are less common in high-income nations, since we have largely regulated our industries.  With the movement of more industry overseas, pollution has followed.  The former regulations and controls are significantly lacking in the developing world. 

Non-Ranked List

The report serves two purposes:  to bring attention to the fact that pollution related deaths are preventable, and to remind the international community of our responsibility to take action.

The Top Ten World's Worst Pollution Problems is a non-ranked set of global issues that pose the greatest threat to human health.  This judgment requires a balance between problems with widespread but moderate contamination levels, and problems that are smaller but much more toxic.

Each of these issues has its own particular characteristics that separate it in some way from the others.  For instance, heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants (POPs), can last in the environment for generations with residual impact for years. Contaminated surface water is especially damaging to children's health. 

What determines a polluted site?

There are three primary factors taken into consideration when ranking the Top Ten: Pollutant, Pathway and Population.

Pollutant: the severity or toxicity of the pollutant. More innocuous contaminants receive a lower ranking, while more dangerous substances, such as mercury or lead, warrant a higher ranking.

Pathway: how the pollutant is transferred to the population. People absorb contaminants through direct inhalation, drinking contaminated water, inhaling airborne dust, bathing in contaminated water, eating contaminated foodstuffs, or through direct skin contact.

Population: the overall number affected by the pollutant globally. Those problems affecting the most people are ranked highest in this category.

Due to the number of variables in these assessments, the problems within the Top Ten list are not ranked against each other and therefore are presented in alphabetical order.

The 2008 Top Ten World's Worst Pollution Problems are:

1 Artisanal Gold Mining

2 Contaminated Surface Water

3 Indoor Air Pollution

4 Industrial Mining Activities

5 Groundwater Contamination

6 Metals Smelting and Processing

7 Radioactive Waste and Uranium Mining

8 Untreated Sewage

9 Urban Air Quality

10 Used Lead Acid Battery Recycling

References

• http://www.worstpolluted.org/
• http://www.blacksmithinstitute.org/