ACK!!!!

In my attempt to reassure myself that I'm still lucky to be living in the Philippines, I tried to look for the dirtiest cities in the world. Surprisingly AND thankfully ,there was no Philippine city in the list.

Rudnaya Pristan, Russia - Just about everything in and around this 90,000-person city is full of lead from smelting operations. The plant has been shut down, and plans are being readied for repairs to lives and land.

Ranipet, India - Ranipet’s pollution can affect up to 3 million people, as it is upstream from populous Chennai. Its tannery waste amounted to 1,500,000 tons a year of toxic material. There is contamination of ground and water. There are efforts being made at containment.

Norlisk Russia - The former slave labor site has a range of pollutants including Strontium-90, Cesium-137 and lesser evils, including hydrogen sulfide. It still holds the world's largest heavy metal smelting complex.
Mailuu-Suu Kyrygzstan - Mailuu-Suu has been a source of multiple disasters. It was a huge uranium processing center. The bombs are somewhere else, but there remains 1.96 million cubic meters of mining waste that is radioactive. The World Bank is starting a containment project in this seismically active area. Linfen, China - Linfen is not alone among polluting cities in China, but it is one of the greatest offenders. It suffers from pollutants such as fly-ash, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, arsenic, lead and nitrogen oxides. Coal mining, burning and hauling are responsible for a great deal of this dirtiness, which affects the air, the ground and the water
La Oroya, Peru - A poly-metallic smelter has exposed La Oroya citizens to toxic emissions for decades. This has resulted in high lead levels in the blood of the children of the city of 35,000. Nearly 100% of the children are over-exposed. The city also suffers from sulfur dioxide emissions, and this has killed the surrounding vegetation.

Source: Forbes.com

In Russia and Central Asia they emit pollutants that I've never heard of. Strontium-90, Cesium-137? What are these? What are its usage? Can somebody enlighten me?

The other day, I was reading about Dalai Lama, Falun Gong and China issues.
Yesterday, I was reading about Baghdad's list of insurgencies, human bombs and Sunni and Shia Muslims.
Today, I'm reading uranium, strontium, Russia and Kyrygzstan.

I wonder what I would do tomorrow.

Mood: Geeky!