Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
about 20 percent lead by weight. Cell phones also contain lead, as well as mercury,
cadmium and other dangerous chemicals. When these components are illegally disposed
of and crushed in land
lls, the lead is released into the environment, posing a hazardous
legacy for current and future generations. Consumer electronics already constitute 40
percent of lead found in land
fi
lls. About 70 percent of the heavy metals (including
mercury and cadmium) found in land
fi
lls come from electronic equipment discards. These
heavy metals and other hazardous substances found in electronics can contaminate
groundwater and pose other environmental and public health risks. Lead can cause
damage to the central and peripheral nervous systems, blood system and kidneys in
humans. It accumulates in the environment, and has highly acute and chronic toxic e
fi
ff
ects
on plants, animals and microorganisms. Children su
ects and loss of
mental ability, even at low levels of exposure. Additionally, the mercury found in many
electronics products often leaches when they are broken and dumped. The presence of
halogenated hydrocarbons in computer plastics may result in the formation of dioxin if
the plastic is burned. The presence of these chemicals also makes computer recycling par-
ticularly hazardous to workers and surrounding ecosystems.
4
ff
er developmental e
ff
Worker safety and health concerns
The marketing of the electronics industry to cities and nations over the last three decades
has relied on the claim that - by contrast to the old economic sectors of iron, steel and
auto, for example - electronics production processes are clean and safe for ecosystems and
workers. However, epidemiological studies conclude that electronics workers experience
occupational illness three times the rate of workers in any other manufacturing sector and
that employees face up to 1000 chemicals on any single workstation. Now that commu-
nities have become more aware of the toxicity of electronics, we see the most hazardous
of operations reserved for immigrant workers in the USA and for communities and
workers abroad.
5
cant
chemical hazards as well. One e-waste worker at a prison in Atwater, California, reported,
Moreover, workers in e-waste recycling plants confront signi
fi
Even when I wear the paper mask, I blow out black mucus from my nose everyday. The black
particles in my nose and throat look as if I am a heavy smoker. Cuts and abrasions happen all
the time. Of these the open wounds are exposed to the dirt and dust and many do not heal as
quickly as normal wounds.
6
Prison inmates reported that those who sought to improve conditions in the e-waste recy-
cling facility faced discipline and the threat of job loss. Inmates worked for a rate of
$0.20-1.26 per hour at the Atwater prison and were not allowed to unionize.
7
This is a
clear issue of labor rights but extends into the realm of environmental justice since a dis-
proportionate percentage of electronics workers are immigrants, women, people of color,
and/or working class. The environmental justice implications of the e-waste crisis have
strong spatial and geographic implications, as these discards are frequently shipped over-
seas to global South nations.
E-waste dumping: a global environmental injustice
The electronics industry is the largest manufacturing sector globally, and, as a chemical-
intensive industry, creates inordinate volumes of pollution. What happens to the 300 000
tons of computers and other electronics goods we consume each year in the USA when
