Cubatão is a city in the state of

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, 12 kilometers away from Santos seaport, the largest in Latin America. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of

Baixada Santista The Baixada Santista is a metropolitan area located on the coast of São Paulo state in Brazil, with a population of 1.7 million. Its most populous city is Santos. As an administrative division (''Região Metropolitana da Baixada Santista''), i ...

. The population is 131,626 (2020 est.) in an area of 142.88 km².Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística
/ref> It hosts industries, refining

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

, steel mills and fertilizers. In the early 1980s, Cubatão was one of the most polluted cities in the world, nicknamed "Valley of Death", due to births of brainless children and respiratory, hepatic and blood illnesses. High air pollution was killing forest over hills around the city. It was ranked the top ten dirtiest cities in the world by ''

Popular Science ''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...

''. Around 12:00 AM (03:00 GMT) on Saturday, 25 February 1984, an

oil spill An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into ...

set the shantytown Vila Socó on fire, killing 93 people according to official figures, though the actual death toll may be more than 200. The contamination of workers with

persistent organic pollutant Persistent organic pollutants (POPs), sometimes known as "forever chemicals", are organic compounds that are resistant to environmental degradation through chemical, biological, and photolytic processes. They are toxic chemicals that adverse ...

s put Rhodia into

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth ...

's top 10 world's worst corporate crimes ever in its report to Rio Summit in 1992. Strong efforts were made to diminish pollution in the city, costing

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

1.2 billion so far. Although things have improved a lot, it is impossible to completely clean the soil and groundwater and while many large industries continue to work in such a small area, there will always be some pollution.

Popular culture

Cubatão was mentioned in the

Jello Biafra Eric Reed Boucher (born June 17, 1958), known professionally as Jello Biafra, is an American singer, spoken word artist and politician. He is the former lead singer and songwriter for the San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys. Initially ac ...

Sepultura Sepultura (, "grave")Barcinski & Gomes 1999, page 17. is a Brazilian heavy metal band from Belo Horizonte. Formed in 1984 by brothers Max and Igor Cavalera,Barcinski & Gomes 1999, page 16. the band was a major force in the groove metal, thras ...

collaboration "Biotech is Godzilla" on the group's 1993 album '' Chaos A.D.'' Cubatão is the name of an

A La Carte A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

song from 1981.

Sister cities

Taquaritinga Taquaritinga is a city in the Central North area of the State of São Paulo, Brazil. The population is 57,364 (2020 est.) in an area of 594 km². The population is formed basically by European descendants (Italians , flag = , fla ...

(1972) * Conchal, Brazil (1986) *

Peruíbe Peruíbe is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of Baixada Santista. The population is 69,001 (2020 est.) in an area of . Peruíbe is located to the southwest of the city of São Paulo and ...

, Brazil (1991) *

Serra Negra Serra Negra is a municipality in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. It belongs to the meso-region of Campinas. Population (2020) was 29,452 inhabitants. Total area: 203,5 km2, demographic density: 112 inhabitants/km2 Location The name of th ...

, Brazil (1991) *

Águas de São Pedro Águas de São Pedro () is a Brazilian municipality in the state of São Paulo located from the state capital.) of the Logistics and Transport Secretariat of the State of São Paulo. At only , it is the second-smallest Brazilian municipality ...

, Brazil (1991) * Aveiro,

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal: :* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...

(1992) *

Melipilla Melipilla ( Mapudungun for "four Pillans") is a Chilean commune and capital city of the province of the same name, located in the Santiago Metropolitan Region southwest of the nation's capital. The commune spans an area of . Demographics Ac ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

(2005)

Divisions

Piaçaguera

Piaçaguera is a location within the city of Cubatão in the state of

, Brazil. The

Rodovia Cônego Domênico Rangoni The Brazilian Highway System (Portuguese: ''Sistema Nacional de Rodovias'') is a network of trunk roads administrated by the Ministry of Infrastructure of Brazil (MINFRA). It is constructed, managed and maintained by the National Department of Tr ...

highway, formerly known as the Piaçaguera-Guarujá highway, starts there. It connects the via Anchieta to

Guarujá Guarujá (; ) is a municipality in the São Paulo state of Brazil. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of Baixada Santista. The population is 322,750 (2020 est.) in an area of . This place name comes from the Tupi language, and means "narrow pa ...

, crossing the Bertioga canal. It is there that the climb through the

Serra do Mar The Serra do Mar (, Portuguese for ''Sea's Ridge'' or ''Sea Ridge'') is a 1,500 km long system of mountain ranges and escarpments in Southeastern Brazil. Geography The Serra do Mar runs parallel to the Atlantic Ocean coast from the state ...

escarpment begins by way of the Santos-Jundiaí railway line. "Piaçaguera" is a term from the

Tupi language Old Tupi, Ancient Tupi or Classical Tupi (also spelled as Tupí) is an extinct Tupian language which was spoken by the aboriginal Tupi people of Brazil, mostly those who inhabited coastal regions in South and Southeast Brazil. It belongs to ...

that means "old port" by way of the conjunction of the two words ''"peasaba"'' ("port") and ''"ûera"'' ("velho").NAVARRO, E. A. ''Método moderno de tupi antigo: a língua do Brasil dos primeiros séculos''. 3ª edição. São Paulo. Global. 2005. p 118.

References

External links

Cubatão web site

EncontraCubatão - Find everything about Cubatão city
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cubatao Populated places established in 1833 Environmental disasters in South America 1833 establishments in Brazil