CA - "Poison PCs and Toxic TVs: The Biggest Environmental Crisis You Never Heard Of"

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From www.wastenews.com:

Electronic waste spurs California action SAN JOSE, CALIF. (July 6) --

A new report claims that just a portion of California´s electronic waste stream could cost taxpayers $1 billion over the next five years.

California cities are demanding that the state take immediate action to regulate computer waste. The cities want to protect their residents from the cost of handling scrap electronics. The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition´s report shows that properly managing just computer monitors and television sets could cost the state $500 million to $1 billion in the next five years.

"We´re sitting on top of a gigantic e-wasteberg and, in order to find solutions, the manufacturers of computers must take life cycle responsibility for their products," said Ted Smith, the coalition´s executive director. "They should take the lead on recycling programs, not the taxpayer."

The report, "Poison PCs and Toxic TVs: The Biggest Environmental Crisis You Never Heard Of," found that more than 6,000 computers become obsolete every day in California. On average, consumers are storing two or three old computers in garages, closets or storage spaces.

The U.S. government estimates that three-quarters of the computers that have ever been sold in the United States are stockpiled, awaiting disposal. California´s computer recycling rate ranges from 5 percent to 15 percent, compared with a 42 percent rate overall for municipal solid waste. The report can be found at www.svtc.org.

San Jose City Council member Cindy Chavez introduced a resolution June 19 calling for the state to collaborate with local governments, environmental groups and electronics manufacturers.

-- PHO (owennos@bigfoot.com), July 09, 2001

Answers

From the San Jose Toxics Coalition Report:

". . . Computer or television displays (CRTs) contain an average of 4 to 8 pounds of lead each. The 315 million computers that will become obsolete between 1997 and 2004 contain a total of more than 1.2 billion pounds of lead.

Monitor glass contains about 20% lead by weight. When these components are illegally disposed and crushed in landfills, the lead is released into the environment, posing a hazardous legacy for current and future generations.

Consumer electronics already constitute 40% of lead found in landfills.

About 70% of the heavy metals (including mercury and cadmium) found in landfills comes from electronic equipment discards.

These heavy metals and other hazardous substances found in electronics can contaminate groundwater and pose other environmental and public health risks.

Lead can cause damage to the central and peripheral nervous systems, blood system and kidneys in humans. Lead accumulates in the environment, and has highly acute and chronic toxic effects on plants, animals and microorganisms. Children suffer developmental effects and loss of mental ability, even at low levels of exposure.

Other hazardous materials used in computers and other electronic devices include cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, PVC plastic and brominated flame retardant. Mercury, for example, leaches when certain electronic devices such as circuit breakers are destroyed.

The presence of halogenated hydrocarbons in computer plastics may result in the formation of dioxin if the plastic is burned. The presence of these chemicals also makes computer recycling particularly hazardous to workers and the environment . . ."

-- PHO (owennos@bigfoot.com), July 09, 2001.


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