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Can my computer poison me?

Inside this Article

an my computer poison me?

E-Waste and You

an my computer poison me?

ULTRA.FElectronics manufacturers are starting to offer eco-conscious options.

Dell raised a kerfuffle with the Better Business Bureau's advertising division over a claim in a 2008 Apple commercialtouting "the world's greenest family of notebooks." Dell charged that the phrasing intentionally misled consumers intothinking that Apple's entire catalog ofcomputers was environmentally friendly, rather than just its special line of eco-conscious models. Although the argument may seem like a useless quarrel over semantics, it's an interesting illustration ofthe murky realm of green electronics.

As with many retail companies these days, some computer manufacturers are burning the midnight oil to add a greensheen to their products. Much of the stuff inside PCs and laptops that make it possible to read this article, for instance,isn't exactly gentle on the environment -- or the human body, for that matter.

In 2006, Greenpeace published the results of an X-ray examination of the materials found inside five leading brands of

laptops (Acer, Apple, Dell, Hewlett Packard and Sony), revealing a laundry list of heavy metals and chemical compoundseither known or suspected to pollute the environment and potentially cause health problems in humans. For example, theinternal wiring of three out of the five laptops contained polyvinyl chloride, better known as PVC . A known carcinogen,PVC exposure can lead to nerve damage, immune reactions and liver cancer .

The presence ofbrominated flame retardants (BFRs), found in the cooling mechanisms of all of the tested laptops, wascause for more alarm. Bromine-based chemical compounds may be carcinogenic to humans and have triggered thyroidproblems, neurobehavioral disorders, liver tumors and immune system problems in test rats and mice. These compoundscan leach out of computers, into the air and into humans' bodies. Moreover, a swipe test study of 16 office computers ineight different states found traces of BFR dust on each one . Although the amounts of BFR are small, environmentalgroups are more concerned about potential bioaccumulation, in which it gradually builds up in the body after long-termex osure.

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The European Union now prohibits the use of mercury, cadmium, certain BFRs and other elements from electronicsmanufacturing. But if people don't live in Europe and aren't in the market for new nontoxic computers, should they fretabout endangering their health whenever they press that power button?

E-waste and You

China PhotosE-waste often ends up in African and Asian countries, including China.

There are a couple of reasons to be grateful for the sturdy plastic casings that house the guts ofPCs and laptops. For onething, they keep the circuit boards, computer chips and rainbows of wires nested together in aesthetically pleasingpackages. Second, they prevent users from direct exposure to heavy metals and toxic chemicals. Remember the mercurythat the Greenpeace study found inside of some laptops? Thanks to the laptop casings, people are more protected fromthe gastrointestinal problems, kidney damage and nervous system disorders linked to mercury contact. In addition, theamounts of these potential toxins should be too small to pose a direct health threat to consumers .

Rather than agonizing over their computers poisoning them, consumers should be more concerned about what happensat the beginning and end of the machine's life cycle. People working in computer manufacturing plants may work closelywith toxic chemicals, and those same chemicals can escape from factories and pollute the air and water supplies insurrounding communities .

Computer disposal has also become a mounting problem in the past decade. When people give their old gadgets theheave-ho, the goods often end up in landfills -- heavy metals, compounds and all. In fact, from 1999 to 2005, Americansthrew away more than 157 million computer products. More alarmingly, computers are only a slice of the entire e-waste pie that includes all electronics products, such as televisions, toaster ovens and alarm clocks. The European Union alonegenerates about 9.3 million tons (8.5 million tonnes) of e-waste annually, with around 75 percent of it going to the dump .

The devastating trickle effect of e-waste ends in some of the poorest regions of the world. Ghana and Nigeria in particularhave made entire industries out of being the final resting places for unwanted computers and electronics. In Agbogbloshie,

Ghana, which is one of the largest e-waste sites on the planet, children and adults inhale dangerous chemical emissionsas they pick through and burn the gutted e-remains . Soil tests at sprawling e-waste sites in China showed incredibly high

levels of bromine-based flame retardants, which are linked to thyroid and liver damage; blood tests of workers at thosesame sites revealed BFR levels 50 to 200 times higher than the average population .

To dam the hazardous e-waste stream, many leading electronics manufacturers, including Dell, Apple, Hewlett Packard

and Toshiba, have implemented computer recycling programs. People can send back old models, sometimes for a fee,with the promise that the company will recycle orrefurbish it. Slowly but surely, computer manufacturers are also jumping

on the European Union's bandwagon and phasing out toxic chemicals. And although the Better Business Bureau ruledfavorably for Apple in its commercial-related dispute with Dell, the fight for the electronics eco-crown is far from over.

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