CURWOOD: Tell me of another place you visited, what you saw, how you felt—what happened as a result of your visit?

FULLER: Sure, Steve. I was recently in a little village called Muslimova, which is in the central part of Siberia, and it’s downstream from a large industrial complex that makes plutonium. And in the early 60s, there was an accidental release of radioactive material that flushed all the way down the river—in fact, all the way down to the Arctic Ocean. It was an enormous release. It was three times the size of Chernobyl in terms of the amount of radioactive material that was polluting the area.

And the Russian authorities had a very interesting response. They moved most of the towns and villages down the river. They physically relocated them as soon as possible afterwards but they left this one village – I think its population is around 20,000 people – probably to study it, to see what kind of effects radio-nuclear would have on that particular population. And they’ve been extraordinary. You go there now and the houses are all shuttered. Everyone has died, or had cancers, or multiple cancers. The second and third generation people of that particular village have all kinds of diseases and mental problems.

CURWOOD: So, given that your top ten most polluted places, indeed the bulk of your ‘dirty thirty,’ are poor places—what does that say to you?

CURWOOD: So if this is related to our consumption habits, what things might we have in our homes in North America or in the rich parts of the world that would have come from the people who have been exposed to all of this pollution?

CURWOOD: Richard Fuller is the founder and director of the Blacksmith Institute. Thank you so much for discussing your report with me today.

FULLER: You’re welcome. It’s been a pleasure.

CURWOOD: You can learn more about the most polluted places in the world and read the Blacksmith Institute report on our website, L-O-E dot org.