When the Blights Go Down in the City

List ranks top ten most polluted spots on earth

Looking for that perfect vacation getaway, where you and that special someone can recapture the magic by going into acute respiratory distress together? Look no further: The Blacksmith Institute has released a list of the 10 most polluted spots on earth. Chernobyl in Ukraine is the best known on the list; Russia has the distinction of being home to three hotspots, while others are in China, the Dominican Republic, India, Kyrgyzstan, Peru, and Zambia. They include hubs of coal production, copper mining, and Cold War-era chemical weapons production. Most are far from capital cities or tourist areas (escape the crowds!), yet still home to a collective 10 million people who suffer dearly from the effects of toxic contamination. "There are places where life expectancy approaches medieval rates, where birth defects are the norm not the exception, where children's asthma rates are measured above 90 percent, and where mental retardation is endemic," the report says. Book your tickets today!