The 10 Filthiest Cities

Mumbai might just be the litter capital of the world, which makes sense, as its insanely overcrowded. Every public service, from trains to roads, is strained to the breaking point. Which wouldn’t be so problematic except the same is true of the sewers and drainage system, and Mumbai gets monsoons. Bring galoshes, and possibly a full-body hazmat suit.

Most of Mexico is actually pretty nice. Yeah, it’s the Third World, but it’s the kind of country where people generally keep things neat. Unfortunately, they have a serious drug crime problem, and that can make some cities…interesting.

The most “interesting” is Cuidad Juarez, which is essentially a city run by criminals. And criminals aren’t interested in, say, picking up the trash or filling in potholes…which is ironic in light of the fact the drug dealers that run the place? Yeah, they’re all driving fancy cars. Hope your fancy car includes some very fancy shocks, Mr. Coke Exporter.

Let’s take a moment from picking on the Third World to picking on Pittsburgh, the place where they put fries in their sandwiches. No, really, they do that. They also have the worst air in America in terms of solid objects floating in it.

And that’s not the smell of Steelers fans after too many beers at the game (or Pirates fans upon waking up and realizing their home team is still the Pirates). It’s because of all the soot and exhaust in the air, so much of it that Pittsburgh comes in second on year-round levels of small particles in the air and first in short-term particle pollution. This is partially due to cars, partially due to everything being powered by coal, and partially due to what remains of the steel industry. Also, some of it comes from Ohio, because Ohio’s just nasty like that.

And yes, it’s worse than Los Angeles.

Norlisk has a proud history of…er…being a slave labor camp. Yeah. Believe it or not, things have actually gotten worse.

Pollution is pretty standard when your main industry is pulling metal out of the ground, but Norlisk still manages to over achieve, dumping 4 million tons of metal dust into the air yearly, with ingredients like yummy cadmium and arsenic. It’s so bad trees can’t survive, and yet the Russians endure.

Most of China runs on coal, and most of that coal comes from Linfen. It’s mined there, and it’s burned there, and both are done so often that you can’t hang your laundry out to dry because it’ll turn black.

What, you thought that just because we were beating on Pittsburgh, LA wasn’t going to make the list? Of course not! But, don’t worry, the factories in Jersey have been shut down long enough we won’t be hitting that stereotype.

Why does LA make the list if Pittsburgh has crappier air? Because LA has more nasty gasses, not little particles! Namely, it’s got ozone, which is great when it’s way, way up there in the ozone layer, but has this nasty tendency to destroy lungs. LA remains number one in this respect, but, on the bright side, they’re not Pittsburgh.

That smelter has been at it since 1922, and there’s so much lead in the air, soil, and water that 99% of the kids there test for three times the acceptable amount. Oh, and there’s neither money nor resources to clean it up; this stuff’s going to be there for centuries. Kind of the gift that keeps on giving.

Mexico City is shafted not by regulations or by drug lords or by companies, but by geography. There are a lot of people driving a lot of cars, which means a lot of exhaust. Unfortunately, Mexico City is sitting in a valley, and it’s about a mile and a half above sea level. This means thin air and weak winds. Which means that everything put in the air over Mexico City stays there.

First, it must be said that Bulgaria itself is kind of a dirty place. People mostly burn coal to deal with the long winters, and most of the cars are the kind of Soviet nightmares that lack seat-belts, let alone fancy schmancy pollution-reducing catalytic converters.

So if you’re the energy center of Bulgaria, with a coal mine, AND a thriving metallurgy industry on top of that…well, being the filthiest of the filthiest isn’t hard to pull off. Welcome to Pernik, where if it’s not on fire, it’s metal, and it’s all trying to kill you. No wonder these people drink.

As a result, Vapi is a bit messy. Pretty much all of the water, soil and air is saturated in stuff you don’t want to breathe, drink, or eat. And it’s got plenty of residents too!

On the bright side, at least they don’t have Mumbai’s drainage problems. Well, we hope, anyway.

This article was written by Dan Seitz.