Posted on: Wednesday, 10 January 2007, 15:00 CST

CHICAGO, Jan. 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Chances are you bought or received some new, high-tech electronic equipment over the past year or during the holidays. Even newer, higher-tech gear is being introduced this week at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

What happens when changes in technology render your gadget obsolete? It becomes “e-scrap,” one of the planet’s fastest growing environmental concerns. E-scrap contains heavy metals and other toxins that can be hazardous to human health and the environment. For example, monitors and TVs can contain between two and eight pounds of lead and smaller amounts of other contaminants like cadmium and mercury.

As much as 4 percent of the municipal solid waste is e-scrap. Americans discarded more than 154 million computers in 2005, not counting the latest generation of game systems, cell phones, PDA’s and MP3 players that will soon enough lose their glow and be replaced with some shiny new device.

To keep hazardous materials out of landfills, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency encourages Americans to recycle or reuse old electronic equipment.

“Recycling electronic equipment isn’t quite as easy as leaving it in a bin in your front yard, as we’ve learned to do with paper and plastics, but health and environmental benefits of recycling e-scrap are tremendous,” said EPA Region 5 Administrator Mary A. Gade. “Also, we know that half of the devices thrown away still work. They can be donated to non-profit organizations, which keep the device out of the landfill, but with the added benefit of a charitable contribution.”

Gade pointed out that some manufacturers have established recycling programs for their electronic products, and that many communities in Michigan have drop-off points where people can take e-scrap for proper disposal.

For more useful information on recycling electronic equipment, visit http://www.epa.gov/ecycling . A great national reuse and recycling resource is http://www.earth911.org/ . Michigan residents should check http://www.michigan.gov/deq/0,1607,7-135-3585_4130-12387–,00.html and http://www.michigan.gov/deq/0,1607,7-135-3585_4130_18096—,00.html .

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5

CONTACT: Karen Thompson of U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyRegion 5, +1-312-353-8547, thompson.karen@epa.gov

Web site: http://www.epa.gov/http://www.epa.gov/ecyclinghttp://www.earth911.org/

Source: PRNewswire-USNewswire

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Toxic Materials in Electronic Products

Over 1,000 materials, including chlorinated solvents, brominated flame retardants, PVC, heavy metals, plastics and gases, are used to make electronic products and their components—semiconductor chips, circuit boards, and disk drives.

A CRT monitor can contain between four and eight pounds of lead alone. Big screen TVs contain even more than that. Flat panel TVs and monitors contain less lead, but use mercury lamps. About 40% of the heavy metals, including lead, mercury and cadmium, in landfills come from electronic equipment discards.

These toxicants are released during the production, use and disposal of electronic products, with the greatest impact at end-of-life. Harmful chemicals released from incinerators and leached from landfills contaminate air and groundwater. The burning of plastics at the waste stage releases dioxins and furans, known developmental and reproductive toxins which persist in the environment and concentrate up the food-chain.

CRT’s: What Are the Health Risks?

Lead

The health effects of lead are well known; lead exposure causes brain damage in children and has already been banned from many consumer products.

Mercury

Mercury is toxic in very low doses, and causes brain and kidney damage. It can be passed on through breast milk; just 1/70th of a teaspoon of mercury can contaminate 20 acres of a lake, making the fish unfit to eat.

Cadmium

Cadmium accumulates in the human body and poisons the kidneys.

BFR’s

Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) may seriously affect hormonal functions critical for normal development. A recent study of dust on computers in workplaces and homes found BFRs in every sample taken. One group of BFRs, PBDEs, has been found in alarming rates in the breast milk of women in Sweden and the U.S.

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