Many countries in Europe as well as the US now have e-waste recycling systems in place to dispose of the growing numbers of old phones, computers and other electronics. However, many of these items are being illegally exported to less industralised countries who don’t have laws in place to protect the environment or workers. Conditions in places like China are often unregulated and primitive.
According to scientists from the US and China, the methods used for recycling e-waste are releasing dangerous levels of toxic pollutants which in turn are posing health risks. Shantou City is a town of 150,000 people in China’s Guangdong Province and has become a main destination for e-waste in family-run workshops. These workshops are incapable of controlling or reducing the air pollutants they are emitting into the surrounding air.
Most of the electronic components in the old phones are removed in a process known as ‘roasting’ by heating the boards over a grill on a strove burner. The reusable parts are then removed.
Bernd Simoneit from Oregon State university who is the co-author of the study explained how dangerous the pollutants were to the environment and to the health of the local workers and residents: ‘Some of these chemical compounds may be carcinogens; others may be just as harmful because they can act as “environmental disruptors” and may affect body processes from reproduction to endocrine function,’