Study: High-tech’s low-tech fate a health hazard for workers

Much of our discarded high-tech gadgetry meets a decidedly low-tech fate, and that may be putting people and the environment at risk, according to a new study by Chinese and American researchers.

The US alone produces about 50 million tons of e-waste – computers, cellphones, and the like – each year. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, much of it still ends up in landfills, a problem in itself, though there are an increasing number of community recycling programs. But then what? Approximately 80 percent of these recycled electronics are sent to China, according to some sources, where a major cottage industry has sprung up to extract precious metals from the e-waste. This recent study, published in the journal Atmospheric Environment, focused on a single typical recycling workshop in Shantou City, in southern China, where reusable electronic components are extracted from circuit boards. They discovered several toxic elements in the emissions from the method used. “The most immediate problem is the health of the workers, and the people who live in the city,” said Bernd R.T. Simoneit, a professor emeritus from Oregon State University and an author of the study. He worked with Chinese researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. “But this may also be contributing to global contamination. Previous studies have found carcinogens in wind-carried dust from Asia.” The workshop is described as having 24 stoves along three walls, and about five tons of circuit boards stacked along the fourth wall. Grills were used to melt the solder to help remove the salvageable parts of the circuitry. When they analyzed the smoke that was created, they found it contained heavy metals, organic chemicals, flame retardants, and other pollutants. “The next step is to see to what extent this is harming the environment and creating a health hazard for both the workers and people living n the path of the emissions,” Simoneit said.