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INDIA-WEST
U.S. Electronic Waste Endangers Health of Poor in India
August 1, 2008 by Sunita Sohrabji
More than 80 percent of electronic waste generated in the U.S. ends up in India, China or Nigeria, endangering the health of those countries’ poorest citizens who are forced to dismantle the often-toxic materials without adequate protection.
Computers, monitors, circuit
boards, televisions and cell phones
are among the materials most often
sent abroad for recycling, usually
by municipalities who have collected
the e-waste, as it is commonly
known, at local recycling drives.
The municipality sells it off to a
dealer who recycles the working
components, then sells the remaining
scrap to export brokers, who
mine the waste for precious metals
and plastics.
Thousands of toxins exist in
old equipment, including lead,
lead oxide and cadmium in circuit
boards, cathode ray tubes and batteries,
mercury in switches and flat
screen monitors, and brominated
flame retardants.
Lead exposure causes brain
damage in children and has already
been banned from many consumer
products. Mercury is toxic in very
low doses and causes brain and
kidney damage. Cadmium accumulates
in the human body and
poisons the kidneys, while brominated
flame retardants may seriously
affect hormonal functions
critical for normal development.
E-waste is banned from landfills
in most U.S. states.
The recycling of e-waste in India
is done in the most unscientific
way, impacting both the health of
the recyclers and the environment
at large, Debasmita Dasgupta,
communications officer at the
New-Delhi-based Toxics Link, told
India-West, estimating the U.S.
dumps more than 150,000 tons of
e-waste in India each year.
Laborers, including children,
are often exposed to noxious
substances such as lead, mercury
and cadmium, she said, adding,
Backyard recycling units often
burn e-waste, generating a large
amount of dioxin in the air that
can create cancer in workers who
inhale it.
In India, e-waste is processed
informally by ragpickers, kabadiwalas
and waste dealers, primarily
in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.
Women and children are
frequently used because they are
cheap sources of labor.
Some families are using cooking
woks to burn wires and then
using those same woks for cooking
their meals, Sarah Westervelt,
e-waste project coordinator at
the Basel Action Network, told
India-West.
Circuit boards are melted over
open fires, releasing brominated
flame retardants, mercury and
isocynates from the varnish, said
Westervelt, adding that the compounds
are completely invisible
and without smell. Exposures are
happening without people even
knowing it, she said.
BAN is named for the Basel
Convention, which in 1994 passed
a landmark decision to ban the
export of hazardous waste for
any reason from rich to poorer
countries. The U.S. is the only
developed country that has not
ratified the treaty and thus permits
the export of most e-waste without restriction.
India has banned the import of ewastes
with hazardous waste rules
created in 1989, which requires
prior approval from the Ministry
of Environments and Forests. U.S.
exporters are able to circumvent
such laws by declaring the materials
donations for schools and nonprofit
organizations in India. India
weakened its existing laws last
November by redefining hazardous
waste and permitted materials,
which include biomedical waste.
Umicore Precious Metals Refining,
a smelter in Belgium, conducted
a study of circuit board
recovery in India and found that
sulphuric and nitric acid, as well
as cyanide was commonly used to
extract gold from the boards. The
acid baths are dumped in local
rivers after the metals have been
extracted, reported the company,
which is returning to India this
August to update the study.
Sheila Davis, executive director
of the Silicon Valley Toxics
Coalition, told India-West the U.S.
should be responsible for handling
its own e-waste.
We should not export to countries
that have no infrastructure to
handle e-waste, she said, adding,
The U.S. is simply trying to find a
source of cheap labor.
Electronics manufacturers need
to set up recycling programs and
recycle responsibly, said Davis,
adding, They should be able to tell
the consumer what happens to the
material at the end of its life.
The decision to recycle responsibly
is often a hard decision
for municipalities to make, said
Davis, adding that local recycling
programs are usually strapped
for cash. Countries such as China
and India will pay cities to recycle
their e-waste. It’s tempting to go
with a country who’s offering you
a couple of pennies per pound,
she said.
Responsible consumers should
purchase from manufacturers committed
to responsible recycling and
manufacturing, asserted Davis.
Eddie Inamdar, owner of the
Union City, Calif.-based Cash for
Junk, told India-West recyclers
exporting electronics abroad
earn up to four times as much as
those selling in the U.S. Inamdar, originally from New Delhi, is
on the Environmental Protection
Agency’s list of responsible recyclers,
but said that distinction
doesn’t mean much. You’ve got a
lot of people on that list who are
still taking their stuff abroad, he
said, adding, It’s really difficult to
track who’s doing it, because the
government isn’t stopping them.
Inamdar shreds anything he
can’t resell and then sends the
remaining metals to a local smelter
for melting down. It’s really tempting
to ship overseas for more
money, but my conscience won’t
allow it, he said.
Manufacturers have to be at
the center of the solution, said
Westervelt of BAN. They have
to get rid of the toxins in the
products and make products that
last longer and are upgradeable,
she said, adding that manufacturers
must take back products for
responsible recycling and build
end-of-life costs into the costs of
their products.
Greenpeace publishes a quarterly
Guide to Greener Electronics,
which ranks electronics manufacturers
on eliminating harmful
chemicals from their products and
responsibility for them at the end
of their lifespan. In the June 2008
report, Sony and Sony Ericcson
received the highest scores, while
Wipro, Zenith, Microsoft, Nintendo
and PCS were ranked the worst.
Download the Report (PDF)
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