Cell Phone Recycling And The Poison In Our Cell Phones
There are over 262 million cell phone subscribers in the US today. On the average, cell phone users replace senile units every 18 months - over 100 million units are outmoded every year. About 20 percent of these elderly phones are recycled or sent back to manufacturers for proper disposal. What is portentous is that 10 % of these extinct phones are thrown away by users - that ' s over 10 million cellular phones sent to scribble and drip dangerous chemicals in our landfills.
Don ' t hurl away those cell phones
If you ' re thinking of replacing your senescent cell phone with a new one, throwing it away should never be an option. Here ' s why:
Cell phones and other electronic waste selfsame TV sets, CRT monitors contain strikingly toxic heavy metals and chemicals in batteries, circuit boards, and jacket. Once landfilled, poisonous chemicals from walking phones congeneric lead, cadmium, mercury, polyvinyl chhloride ( pvc ), brominated flame retardants ( BFRs ), etc. can potentially contaminate nearby water sources and surrounding soil.
How dangerous are these chemicals and metals?
Lead
Lead, form in cellular phone batteries and mature computer monitors, is a poisonous metal that can damage spooked connections ( especially in modern children ) and produce blood and brain disorders. Long term exposure to lead or its salts ( especially soluble salts or the strong oxidant PbO2 ) can repercussion to complications compatible kidney damage, reduced IQ, slowed body fleshing out, abdominal pain, and durable mental damage.
According to Dr. Anne Marie Helmenstine, author and leading authority in biomedical sciences, lead has been father to generate development problems in children and diminishes brain functions even in adults. In a recent note, Dr. Kim Dietrich from the University of Cincinnati, has associated lead exposure during ignorance to digressive criminal behavior in adults. According to Dr. Dietrichs report, their findings implicate early exposure to lead as a risk aid for behaviors leading to criminal arrest.
Compared to a TV set or an senile CRT watchdog, many of which can contain as much as 5 lbs. of lead, motile phones contain only traces of this dangerous metal. However, seeing of the perfect number of cell phones that get dumped in landfills each year, the dilemma has also exponentially - the 500 million cell phones now spoiled in our landfills could potentially leak more than 300, 000 lbs. of lead into the surrounding soil and water systems.
Mercury
Found in cellular phone batteries, mercury is a toxic chemical that affects the proof system, alters genetic and enzyme systems, and damages the hysterical system, including arranging and the generalization of touch, taste, and sight. Developing embryos - babies in their mothers ' wombs - are particularly exposed, being 5 to 10 times more sensitive to the effects of mercury than adults.
" Mercury in any mold is toxic, " according to Dr. Barry M. Diner of Emory University. " Neurologic, gastrointestinal, and renal systems are the most commonly affected organ systems in mercury exposure. "
Cadmium
The US Department of Health and Human Services ( DHHS ) has steadfast cadmium and cadmium compounds to be human carcinogens. Organize in cellular phone batteries, exposure to cadmium can also lead to scantiness in bone density, lung damage, and kidney problems.
Toxic Amour Retardants
Brominated Enchantment Retardants ( BFR ) and decabromodiphenyl ether ( decaBDE ) are among the most widely used chemicals in the electronics industry providing coating for cell phone wrap, etc. Numerous studies have shown the opposing health and environmental impacts of these chemicals - being possible carcinogens and endocrine disruptors. EPA recently announced that beginning in 2013, the US will " will end production, use, and sales of the chemical in the United States. " Inactive, millions have cell phones coated with these chemicals are instant out there, endangering everyone ' s health.
Many of our municipal and home landfills today are engineered to prevent harmful chemicals generated by solid waste from spilling or advance the surrounding areas and water systems. But no system is impeccable, and landfill chemicals will always have the lethal dormant to scar our water and agricultural country where food crops are grown. This year, The New York Times reported that 90 % of all fish harvested in our lakes and rivers contain dangerous amounts of mercury. Where do you envisage does that come from?
Recycle cell phones
Clearly, the only possible option - if we want to protect the environment and our health - is to save cell phones. Expressive phone recycling will not only prevent those highly - toxic chemicals from ever avenue our landfills, it will make convinced that useful metals form in cellular phones selfsame gold, silver, coltan etc. are kept in the production glimmer. This lowers the demand for fresh raw material and decreases energy consumption and effigy emissions associated with striking or mining for new materials.
As the world now grapples with the environmental problems brought about by our excesses, we ' re also gradually learning that there is really diddly that we do that does not affect the environment and - a little bit down the road - people. Those elderly phones that we ' ve heedlessly thrown away will in future come back to haunt us through the food that we eat and the water that we drink.
The earth is not a container for our cell phones and electronic waste, let ' s save cell phones today.
