Poland - Huta Pokoj - Steel Mill dominates town

It is 10.15 in the morning and a mother and her daughter have crossed a road in Ruda Slaska, Poland, while an older lady has paused on the zebra crossing. It is a dark and gloomy day in this heavily polluted, industrial town in southern Poland. The local employer is the Huta Pokoj SA steel mill that dominates the landscape, rising as a filthy tower that makes the air quality so poor that respiratory deceases are common, with soot present in the atmosphere for children to breathe. The environmental impact of 1990s post-Stalinist Polish heavy industry is evident. The day is damp, depressing and unhealthy with a truck's headlights on as pedestrians stand on the roadside, wait at the bus stop or cycle past on the pavement. (Photo by In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images)