e-Toxicity

An ailing Japanese fisherman of Minamata in 1970 had expressed his love for the ocean as…

When I though I was dying
And my hands were numb
And wouldn't work
And my father was dying too
When the villagers turned against us
It was to the sea
I would go to cry.

No one can understand
Why I love the sea so much.
The sea
Has never abandoned me.
The sea
Is the blood of my veins.

Have you ever thought of the life span of PCs, TVs and other electronic goods? As far as I remember, the oldest machine in my house is a Panasonic AM radio that’s as old as me. Several times I have had to share my congested room with this old junk. It weighed not less than 3 kg but occupied as much space as an eight year old desktop computer. We prefer to keep electronic goods as long as we can. However, according to World Bank’s World Development Indicator 2008, the average age of PCs in developed countries was less than 5 years in 2008 and is falling. Not only PCs, individuals in developed countries are equipped with cell phones, TVs, digital cameras, mp3 players, laptops and many more gadgets. Roughly, my estimate is that the rate at which these machines become obsolete is far higher than the rate at which people die everyday. Have you ever thought of an electronic-graveyard then?

If you live in the third world, you might find Pentium-I computers at unbelievable prices, a few scratches but able to satisfy your immediate need for technology. Now you can guess where the e-graveyard is. E-waste is shipped to the world's most underdeveloped countries, closer to coastal areas, in the name of recycling. Nevertheless, some machines find good retired lives under a thatched roof while others ultimately face hardship at the hands of poverty stricken people. The stark-poor crush these machines to salvage its parts. They break it, sell the insulating wires for copper, collect the magnet, iron and plastics. Things yet left over are thrown into the environment inadvertently. Sometimes, the notion of recycling is a misnomer to sustainability.

Going back to the Japanese poem, the fisherman tells of his love for the ocean. But something from that same beloved ocean killed everyone in his family. Before the Japanese could find out what it was, thousands of people were already crippled in Minamata. Those devoted to industrial development become indignant when they recall this tragedy today. Thousands of people died from the Minamata disease with symptoms of ataxia, trembling, numbness and paralysis. Finally, a veterinarian ruled in the cause when a cat, that had become finicky for fish, became crazy and committed suicide by jumping into the sea. Metal mercury had leaked from the industries into the ocean and bioaccumulated in fish and thus, passed into the human food chain. The fish didn’t die because they could biologically convert inorganic mercury into organic mercury (methyl-mercury) which is innocuous to them.

Before I get to the point, I want to introduce another notorious metal that poses a threat to the development of intelligent society. Exposure to higher concentrations of lead in childhood can lead to reduced cognitive abilities. 

Lead is used for soldering of printed circuit boards in computers and many other electronics. Lead batteries are also common in older machines. I have seen people blissfully hurling lead batteries onto paddy fields as if victorious over the chemicals that had stopped for their transistor radios. When I see all the used batteries from colleges being collected in the toxicology laboratory, where I work, to be disposed in the bioharzd container, I remember children in my village sfinding these batteries fascinating. Sometime I visualize rural Nepal where some folks carry them in their mouths while others break them open with stones and smear their hands and faces with the black carbon. 

Lead is also used in the glass panels of computer monitors (the cathode ray tubes). Older types of cathode ray tubes also contain cadmium, another heavy metal, which is inhalable and can cause cardiovascular problems. Mercury is used in fluorescent lamps, batteries and mercury switches and thermometers. When you try to burn e-waste, unlike ordinary plastics, you will find it inert to fire. Incinerating these flame retardants release polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), PCDD, Dioxin, etc. These plastic poisons are those infamous organic pollutants that pop up in every environmental discussion. They are hazardous carcinogens and can cause endocrine disruptions in animals if exposed over prolonged periods. In an ecosystem contaminated with PCBs, biologists have linked the appearance of hermaphrodite frogs to pesticides and PCBs. 

Many people in South Asia collect copper cords, sometime stealing it from the public places and telephone lines. They burn it in the open air or as cooking fuel inside the house putting them at a serious health risk. Amateur electricians who enjoy connecting cords and repairing switches often burn the insulators to take the coils out, all the while being exposed to plastic poisons. News sources report that suburban dwellers in the southern province of Guangdong in China are extracting metals from e-waste. Opportunists are eyeing even this “brown recycling” as cheap fuel for China’s massive economy.

Lead alone constitutes 40% of hazardous waste in the dumping of e-waste. No matter how strong the land filling capacity of the dumping site, the risk of it leeching into the environment is unavoidable. Disposal requires scientific care. Dumping it on third world countries, where people already have many problems, will further disrupt their lives. 

This blog originally appeared on kirandhakal.blogspot.com on June 22, 2008.