Rutherglen remains the oldest royal burgh in Scotland, being more than 500 years older than Glasgow. It was a centre of heavy industry, having a long coal mining tradition which died out by 1950, and was until the 1960s home to the infamous White's chemical works, which was responsible for huge swathes of the area from southern Glasgow across to the town of Cambuslang being polluted with chromium waste. Rutherglen, and most of the towns encircling the city, are now dormitory suburbs of Glasgow.