Photojournalism: Singles: singles_update_20001

Momin Mohammad brushes his teeth by the canal outside his home in the Hazaribagh neighborhood of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Momin has lived here for 15 or 20 years and works loading and unloading leather in the tanneries, earning 6,000 to 7,000 (about $77 to $90) taka a month. He says that living in the neighborhood is difficult but he has no other options. Often he and his family have health problems including diarrhea, headaches and jaundice. Hazaribagh was just listed in a report by Green Cross Switzerland and Blacksmith Institute as the 5th most polluted place on earth. It houses 95% of Bangladesh's leather tanneries, and every day they dump 22,000 cubic liters of toxic waste, including the cancer-causing hexavalent chromium, into the capital city's main river and key water supply, the Burgiganga. Most of the laborers work with the hazardous chemicals without any safety precautions, and there have been reports of horrific workplace accidents in the factories. Residents of the neighborhood slums are exposed to the extreme air, water and soil pollution. The tanneries export millions of dollars of leather good around the world, including the US and Europe.

Momin Mohammad brushes his teeth by the canal outside his home in the Hazaribagh neighborhood of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Momin has lived here for 15 or 20 years and works loading and unloading leather in the tanneries, earning 6,000 to 7,000 (about $77 to $90) taka a month. He says that living in the neighborhood is difficult but he has no other options. Often he and his family have health problems including diarrhea, headaches and jaundice. Hazaribagh was just listed in a report by Green Cross Switzerland and Blacksmith Institute as the 5th most polluted place on earth. It houses 95% of Bangladesh's leather tanneries, and every day they dump 22,000 cubic liters of toxic waste, including the cancer-causing hexavalent chromium, into the capital city's main river and key water supply, the Burgiganga. Most of the laborers work with the hazardous chemicals without any safety precautions, and there have been reports of horrific workplace accidents in the factories. Residents of the neighborhood slums are exposed to the extreme air, water and soil pollution. The tanneries export millions of dollars of leather good around the world, including the US and Europe.