Technical progress is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, many things that seemed incredible a few years ago is the population and there are more and more people every day. On the other hand, in order to meet demand, industrial production and mining are growing exponentially, and for the sake of economy, they often do not pay attention to the ecology, literally destroying all natural life. Meet the five dirtiest cities in the world, where, sadly, China and India are in the lead.

5) La Oroya, Peru

The small Peruvian town of La Oroya, which is located in the foothills of the Andes, became the center of metallurgy at the beginning of the last century.

Copper, lead, and zinc were mined for decades at a rapid pace, paying no attention to the ecology. The content of heavy metals in the blood of local residents exceeds the norm several times, and the death rate of children is one of the largest in the world. The neighborhood of the city is more like a lunar landscape with bare scorched earth, without grass, trees, and bushes.

4) Vapi, India

India can not boast of such a rate of economic growth as China, but there are also industrial centers where ecology and nature protection is an empty sound that no one has paid attention to for a long time. The city of Vapi, with a population of 71 thousand people found itself in the southern part of a 400-kilometer industrial zone, where all waste from metallurgical plants and chemical factories flow.

Here, the level of mercury in groundwater is 96 times higher than normal, and the high content of heavy metals in soil and air literally destroys local residents.

3) Sukinda, India

Chromium is one of the most important metals necessary for smelting stainless steel, and it is also actively used for tanning the skin. The only bad thing is, hexavalent chromium is the strongest carcinogen that gets into the body by air or mixed in with water.

One of the world's largest open chrome mines is located near the Indian city of Sukinda, wherein 60 percent of drinking water the content of hexavalent chromium exceeds the norm by half. Indian doctors confirmed that in 84.75 percent of cases of diseases of local residents, it is the increased chromium content in the body that is to blame.

2) Tianying, China

The city of Tianying, located in the north-eastern part of China, is one of the largest metallurgical centers in the country, where about half of the lead is mined in the country. The city is constantly enveloped in blue smoke, and at a distance of ten meters, even in the daytime, it is difficult to see anything. However, this is not the worst thing, because of disregard for the environment, the soil is literally soaked with lead. It enters the children's blood, destroying them from the inside, leading to dementia.

1) Linfen, China

The title of the dirtiest city in the world, unfortunately for the locals, is the center of the Chinese coal industry, Linfen. Here people get up and go to bed with coal dust on their skin, clothes and bed linen. Washing laundry is meaningless as after hanging it out on the street for drying, it becomes black.