A Bangladeshi woman braves the rising smoke as she melts
down plastic at an open air re-cycling plant on the banks of the river
Buriganga in Dhaka.The amount of lead in the air in Dhaka was estimated
in early 2004 at 465 nanograms per cubic metre, one of the highest in
the world, while the amount of suspended particulate matter is four times the
permissible level, according to government figures.83