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Report:
Developed Countries Dump Obsolete Tech Products In Asia
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Toxic electronic waste – a health hazard in Asia |
SAN
FRANCISCO, Feb 25 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - An international network
of environmental groups said Monday that China, Pakistan and India had become
the world's dumping ground for toxic technology garbage, warning there was no
limit on their size as users dump older computers and other high-tech gear, news
agencies reported.
The
amount of "electronic" or "e-waste" is growing at a rate of
18 percent annually, charged the coalition, including Greenpeace China, SCOPE of
Pakistan, Toxics Link India and the U.S.-based Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition,
with 1998 figures tabulated by the U.S. National Safety Council exceeding seven
million tons, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
They
issued a report, called “Exporting Harm: The Hi-Tech Trashing Of Asia”,
which details a group of villages in south-eastern China where computers from
America are picked apart and strewn along rivers and fields, reported the BBC's
online news service.
The
transfer of hazardous waste is restricted by a 1989 treaty known as the Basel
Convention, but the United States has not ratified it.
"I've
seen a lot of dirty operations in Third World countries, but what was shocking
was seeing all this post-consumer waste," said one of the report's authors,
Jim Puckett of the Seattle-based Basel Action Network.
By
publishing their report, the campaigners hope it will increase the pressure on
American companies and politicians to do more to recycle computer waste.
Discarded
computers and other gear contain a "witches' brew" of toxic substances
including PVC plastic refuse, lead, brominated flame retardants, barium and
phosphor, the groups said, putting the onus for the dumping on the United States
and other "rich economies" that contribute 80 percent of e-waste.
These
countries "made use of a convenient, and until now, hidden escape valve --
exporting the e-waste crisis to the developing countries in Asia," the
activists stated the report.
The
report says electronic waste is the most rapidly growing waste problem in the
world, with toxic ingredients such as the lead, mercury or cadmium being
released into the environment. The effect was to fill the air with carcinogenic
smoke and pollute the water, said the report.
The
growing amount of computer waste is becoming an increasing problem, with
millions of devices becoming obsolete each year as the technology industry
produces faster, better and less expensive equipment.
While
there are recycling programs in the U.S. campaigners say much of the waste
electronics finds its way to the developing world.
The
report suggested that as much as 80% of the America's electronic waste collected
to be recycled is shipped out of the country.
"Everybody
knows this is going on, but they are just embarrassed and don't really know what
to do about it," said Ted Smith, head of the Silicon Valley Toxics
Coalition, which also helped prepare the new report. "They would just
prefer to ignore it."
Among
the most egregious dumping sites is the formerly bucolic area known as Guiyu in
China's Guangdong Province, off the Lianjiang River, a four-hour drive northeast
of Hong Kong.
As
many as 100,000 poor men, women and children use hammers, chisels and other
crude tools to bust apart discarded computers and computer monitors, earning
pennies for the computer junk recycling they do.
The
workers are "often unaware of the health and environmental hazards involved
in operations," including open burning of plastics and wires, using acid to
extract gold, melting and burning soldered circuit boards and cracking and
dumping toxic lead laden cathode ray tubes used in computer monitors.
These
pollutants are being dumped into the Lianjiang River, as well as along the
banks, in open fields and in irrigation canals, polluting ground water. Such
dumping has necessitated the import of potable water, the report said.
The
mess is a "cyber-age nightmare," claimed coalition spokesman Jim
Puckett. "They call this recycling, but it's really dumping by another
name."
Other
e-waste sites are thought to exist on the Asian subcontinent, the coalition
reported -- in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi and in New Delhi in
India.
The
activists blamed the U.S. technology industry for the dump, saying it had backed
legislation exempting the export of computer junk by categorizing it as recycled
trash instead of toxic waste.
"Silicon
Valley is not out to poison China," insisted Margaret Bruce, director of
environmental programs at the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group (SVMG), a
high-tech U.S. trade and policy organization that counts Intel, Cisco, Apple
among its members. "Unfortunately, the legacy of our high-tech explosion
ends up where it shouldn't."
Michael
Wero, another SVMG spokesman, said the technology industry was wrestling with
who is responsible for policing e-waste dumping, though environmentalists
counter industrialists have had ample time to deal with the problem.
"They've
had 20 years to figure out what they should be doing," said Ted Smith, a
spokesman for the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. "It's not very
responsible leadership for an industry that prides itself as being
cutting-edge."
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