Young men look for metal near an abandoned lead mine in Kabwe, Zambia. Many children in the area suffer from severe lead poisoning. (photo credit: Blacksmith Institute)
The reactor disaster in Chernobyl took place on April 26, 1986. The reactor was encased as a temporary solution to secure the site for only 20-30 years. (photo credit: Julien Behal/Chernobyl Children's Project)
In Dzerzhinsk, Russia, waste from 190 chemicals has turned the groundwater into a dangerous toxic sludge. Life expectancy is 42 for men and 47 for women. (photo credit: Blacksmith Institute)
Norilsk, Russia has the world's largest heavy metals smelting complex. It's operations are releasing 4 million tons of Cd, Cu, Pb, Ni, As, Se and Zn into the air annually. (photo credit: Hans Wendel)
Cancer rates in Sumgayit are 22-51% higher than the national average in Azerbaijan (photo credit: Adam Klaus)
Approximately 71,000 people in Vapi, India, use contaminated well water for lack of a safe alternative. (photo credit: Lampu Bhutia/Blacksmith Institute)
Women workers in Sukinda, India are exposed to water contaminated by hexavalent chromium. Infertility, birth defects, and stillbirths and have resulted from this exposure. ( photo credit: P. Madhavan/MMP India)
Sasha is one of the children at the Vesnova orphanage. More than five million children are living in the affected areas of the Chernobyl meltdown of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. (photo credit Julien Behal/Chernobyl Children's Project)
Mentally handicapped children exposed to radiation from the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine (photo credit: Alex Emes)
Twenty-one years after the Chernobyl disaster, abandoned mentally and physically handicapped children are being found and taken in by orphanages. (photo credit: Alex Emes)
Children in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine have been suffering from the effect of the radiation released in April 1986. The Rechitsa orphanage in Belarus has been caring for the huge population of sick children. (photo credit Julien Behal/Chernobyl Children's Project)
A health worker examines to a man sickened from scavenging in the lead mines of Kabwe, Zambia. (photo credit: Blacksmith Institute)
Young men look for metal at the site of an abandoned lead mine in Kabwe, Zambia. Lead poisoning of children in the area is endemic. (photo credit: Blacksmith Institute)
According to a 1999 study, traces of the neurotoxin, nickel have been found within a 60 km radius of the city of Norilsk, Russia. (photo credit: Hans Wendel)
Children in Norilsk, Russia are suffering from respiratory diseases, along with ear, nose and throat disesases. (photo credit: Hans Wendel)
Women workers in Sukinda, India are exposed to contaminated dust and water. Common ailments are gastrointestinl bleeding, tuberculosis and asthma. (photo credit: P. Madhavan/MMP India)
Sumgayit, Azerbaijan was an industrial center during the Soviet era, in manufacturing rubber, chlorine, aluminum, detergents and pesticides. (photo credit: Adam Klaus)
Currently polluting factories in Sumgayit, Azerbaijan are using dated technologies and improperly disposing and treating industrial waste. (photo credit: Adam Klaus)
Untreated sewage and mercury-contaminated sludge continue to be dumped haphazardly from chlor-alkali industries in Sumgayit, Azerbaijan. (photo credit: Petro Morgos)
Approximately 71,000 people in Vapi, India use contaminated well water for lack of a safe alternative. (photo credit: Lampu Bhutia/Blacksmith Institute)
In Vapi, India over 50 industrial estates comprising at least 1,000 individual factories produce byproducts from petrochemical, pesticide, pharmaceutical and textile manufacturing. (photo credit: Lampu Bhutia/Blacksmith Institute)I
Mercury levels in Vapi, India's groundwater are 96 times higher than the health standards of WHO. (photo credit: Lampu Bhutia/Blacksmith Institute)
Young coal miner in Linfen, China. The State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) of China has branded Linfen as having the worst air quality in the country. ( photo credit: andi808)
The pollution activities in Vapi, India have caused respiratory diseases including chemical dermatitis, carcinoma, skin, lung and throat cancers.(photo credit: Lampu Bhutia/Blacksmith Institute)
In Vapi, India over 50 industrial estates comprising at least 1,000 individual factories produce byproducts from petrochemical, pesticide, pharmaceutical and textile manufacturing. (photo credit: Lampu Bhutia/Blacksmith Institute)
