Evaluating Risks of Acquired Clinical Vulnerability Among Subjects Exposed to E-Waste - Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology - page 8

In a separate study, the same team established a control group using data from
pregnant women in suburban areas of Xiamen, Fujian Province, located 200 km
away from Guiyu. This control site (Xiamen, Fujian Province) had no E-waste pro-
cessing activities. The authors found that, between 2003 and 2007, the rate of pre-
mature delivery, fetus-death and low birth-weight in Guiyu were all signiicantly
higher than in the control group. The fetal death rate in Guiyu was approximately
six times higher than the rate in the control group, whereas premature delivery was
approximately 62% higher.
Processing of E-waste is proitable and continues to attract new workers to the
trade; this occurs despite the health risks involved. In China, processing one ton of
E-waste yields approximately 450 g of gold and 200 kg of lead (Zheng et al. 2008 ;
Wong et al. 2007 ). A similar situation exists in India. The importance of E-waste
recycling has been highlighted in an occupational health context by Pinto ( 2008 )
and Pandve ( 2007 ). A study by the Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute at Kolkata
found that people in Delhi were twice as likely to suffer from lung ailments as those
who reside in the countryside; and the lung ailments that existed were associated
with the (huge) amounts of E-waste generated (Toxics Link 2010 ).
Wen et al. ( 2008 ) studied the occupational exposure of workers at two electri-
cal and electronic equipment dismantling factories located in an area of east
China. Exposures were monitored to several chemicals, including polychlori-
nated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), polybrominated diphe-
nyl ethers (PBDEs), and PCBs. The monitoring activities addressed indoor dust
( n = 3) in workshops, as well as hair samples from male workers ( n = 64). Pre- and
post-work-shift urine samples (64 of each) were also collected from the
workers and were analyzed for oxidative damage to DNA, using 8-hydroxy-2¢-
deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) as a biomarker. The homologue and congener proiles
in the samples demonstrated that high concentrations of PCDD/Fs, PBDEs, and
PCBs originated from open-air incineration of E-waste. The 8-OHdG levels were
6.40 ± 1.64 mmol/mol creatinine in pre-work-shift urine samples. However, the
levels signiicantly increased to 24.55 ± 5.96 mmol/mol creatinine in post-work-
shift urine samples ( p < 0.05). A high cancer risk was regarded to exist at this
E-waste processing site. The risk that originated from the elevated 8-OHdG levels
was from the E-waste and was regarded to have caused oxidative stress among the
workers involved in E-waste dismantling. Moreover, the oxidative stress that
resulted from exposure of workers was believed to result from exposure to the
high concentrations of PCDD/Fs, PBDEs, and PCBs present.
Although there are few epidemiology studies that deal directly with the human
impact of E-waste, there are other data that strongly suggest increased human dis-
ease vulnerability from long-term low-level exposures as does that occurs with
E-waste handling.
The authors of this paper believe that concomitant low-dose exposure to a mul-
titude of toxicants over many years leads to subtle changes at the cellular, molecu-
lar, and gene-expression levels that are prospectively easy to demonstrate using a
genomics approach. Such changes can be examined to determine if there is an
association with increased disease vulnerability, viz., cancers, reproductive end