China, India and Russia have achieved the dubious distinction of harboring six of the world´s 10 most polluted places. The remaining four are in Azerbaijan, Peru, Zambia and the Ukraine.

The New York-based Blacksmith Institute, an independent environmental group, announced its second annual Top 10 "Killer Communities" Wednesday during a conference call with reporters.

Heavy metals and effluents from industry, particulates from factories and traffic, lead and other heavy metals from mining and smelting, radioactive materials from a nuclear reactor explosion, toxic byproducts from chemical weapons manufacturing during the Cold War and contamination from petrochemical production are just some of the dreck plaguing 12 million people in these seven countries.

Polluted soil, groundwater, rivers, lakes and air breed places where life expectancy approaches medieval rates, birth defects are the norm, asthma rates and blood lead levels among children have skyrocketed and mental retardation is endemic, Blacksmith spokespeople said.

A 70-page report (available online at www.blacksmithinstitute.org) outlines major pollutants and sources, the scope of the human impact and the cleanup status.

Sites included in this year´s Top 10 are: Sumgayit, Azerbaijan; Tianying, China; Sukinda, India; Vapi, India; Linfen, China; La Oroya, Peru; Dzerzhinsk, Russia; Norilsk, Russia; Chernobyl, Ukraine; and Kabwe, Zambia. The first four are new to this year´s list, while the latter six are repeat offenders.

Cancer rates in Sumgayit are up to 51 percent higher than the national average in Azerbaijan, according to report figures, and birth defects are commonplace. Industrial chemicals and heavy metals are leftovers from Sumgayit´s days as a Soviet industrial base.

Processing plants in Tianjin have created an average lead content in the air and soil 10 times higher than national standards. Mercury in Vapi´s groundwater is 96 times higher than World Health Organization standards, and soils and groundwater are also contaminated with pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), chromium, lead and cadmium. Sukinda is the source for India´s chromite ore. Toxic hexavalent chromium has leached into drinking water supplies from unregulated mines.

"The fact of the matter is that children are sick and dying in these polluted places, and it´s not rocket science to fix them," said Blacksmith founder and director Richard Fuller. "The bottom line is this is about kids, and getting toxins out of children´s lives."

Blacksmith´s Top 10 are a slice of its extensive "Dirty 30" ranking, which includes only one North American site. Mexico City made the cut for its extreme air pollution.

Scoring criteria was based on input from a panel of international research experts from Johns Hopkins University, Hunter College, Harvard University, the University of Idaho, Indian Institutes of Technology, Mount Sinai Hospital and leaders of environmental companies.

"Getting the problem of extreme pollution in the developing world on the radar is a first step to taking action," said David Hanrahan, Blacksmith´s chief of global programs.

Blacksmith, formed in 1999, collaborates with local environmental authorities to coordinate cleanup efforts worldwide. It has completed 29 projects in nine countries and is now tackling 42 projects in 12 countries. More than 400 contaminated sites are on its master list.

"When you travel to these places, you have an inherent sense of desolation, and disgust at what man has wrought," Fuller said, adding that cleanup costs aren´t necessarily cost-prohibitive, especially based on a per capita basis. "For $200, or the cost of a refrigerator, we´re able to save somebody´s life."

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