The World's Most Polluted Places

Vapi, India

Number of people potentially affected: 71,000
Type of pollutant: Chemicals and heavy metals
Source of pollution: Industrial estates

If India's environment is on the whole healthier than its giant neighbor China's, that's because India is developing much more slowly. But that's changing, starting in towns like Vapi, which sits at the southern end of a 400-km-long belt of industrial estates. For the citizens of Vapi, the cost of growth has been severe: levels of mercury in the city's groundwater are reportedly 96 times higher than WHO safety levels, and heavy metals are present in the air and the local produce. "It's just a disaster," says Fuller.

— by Bryan Walsh