The Most Toxic Town on Earth (And People Live There)

A city built on ore became one of Earth’s most toxic places. Uncover Kabwe’s century-long lead poisoning crisis, colonial extraction, failed cleanups, and the children still paying the price today.

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00:00 Introduction

01:15 A City Built on a Stone of Ore

03:08 Company Town, Toxic Town (1906–1930s)

05:04 How Lead Poisons a City

07:47 Slow Burn: Early Warnings, Little Action (1970s–1994)

10:41 The First Big Cleanup That Wasn’t

11:57 Counting the Poison: The Science Gets Serious (2010s)

14:14 Mining the Waste: Poisonous Profit

15:28 Who Pays? Anglo American, the Zambian State, and the Courts

18:32 The Second Big Cleanup: ZMERIP and Its Limits

19:49 Kabwe as Sacrifice