Cubatão

Cubatão is a city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, 12 kilometres from the seaport of Santos, and part of the Metropolitan Region of the Baixada Santista. It was created as a municipality by state law in 1948 and hosts heavy industry including oil refining, steel mills and fertilizer plants. In the early 1980s it was one of the most polluted cities in the world, nicknamed the Valley of Death, and a pipeline fire at the Vila Socó shantytown on 25 February 1984 killed 93 people by official figures. Large sums were later spent on cleanup, though the contaminated soil and groundwater cannot be fully restored. The 2022 census counted 112,476 inhabitants over 143.649 square kilometres.