Cell Phone Recycling And The Poison In Our Cell Phones

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 old units every 18 months - over 100 million units are extinct every year. About 20 percent of these senile phones are recycled or sent back to manufacturers for proper disposal. What is menacing is that 10 % of these obsolete phones are thrown away by users - that ' s over 10 million cellular phones sent to foolishness and filtrate dangerous chemicals in our landfills.


Don ' t throw away those cell phones

If you ' re thinking of replacing your aged cell phone with a new one, throwing it away should never be an option. Here ' s why:

Cell phones and other electronic waste approximating TV sets, CRT monitors contain exceptionally toxic weighty metals and chemicals in batteries, circuit boards, and wrapper. Once landfilled, poisonous chemicals from mobile phones jibing 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, set up in cellular phone batteries and decrepit computer monitors, is a poisonous metal that can damage agitated connections ( especially in new children ) and create blood and brain disorders. Long term exposure to lead or its salts ( especially soluble salts or the strong oxidant PbO2 ) can event to complications cognate kidney damage, reduced IQ, slowed body augmentation, abdominal pain, and abiding mental damage.

According to Dr. Anne Marie Helmenstine, author and leading authority in biomedical sciences, lead has been organize to originate development problems in children and diminishes brain functions even in adults. In a recent register, Dr. Kim Dietrich from the University of Cincinnati, has associated lead exposure during minority to irregular 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 senescent CRT overseer, many of which can contain as much as 5 lbs. of lead, mobile phones contain only traces of this dangerous metal. However, considering of the bona fide number of cell phones that get dumped in landfills each year, the question has larger exponentially - the 500 million cell phones now mildewed 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 resistant system, alters genetic and enzyme systems, and damages the worried system, including symmetry and the reason of touch, taste, and sight. Developing embryos - babies in their mothers ' wombs - are particularly unguarded, being 5 to 10 times more sensitive to the effects of mercury than adults.

" Mercury in any profile 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 constant cadmium and cadmium compounds to be human carcinogens. Form in cellular phone batteries, exposure to cadmium can also lead to stint in bone density, lung damage, and kidney problems.


Toxic Cherishing Retardants

Brominated Partiality Retardants ( BFR ) and decabromodiphenyl ether ( decaBDE ) are among the most widely used chemicals in the electronics industry providing coating for cell phone casing, etc. Numerous studies have shown the unfavorable 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. " Restful, millions have cell phones coated with these chemicals are nowadays out there, endangering everyone ' s health.


Many of our municipal and field landfills today are engineered to prevent harmful chemicals generated by solid waste from spilling or advent the surrounding areas and water systems. But no system is masterful, and landfill chemicals will always have the lethal plausible to damage our water and agricultural state 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 sense does that come from?

Recycle cell phones

Clearly, the only doable option - if we want to protect the environment and our health - is to salvage cell phones. Walking phone recycling will not only prevent those highly - toxic chemicals from ever nearing our landfills, it will make unequivocal that useful metals raise in cellular phones congenerous gold, silver, coltan etc. are kept in the production dtreak. This lowers the demand for fresh raw material and decreases energy consumption and facsimile emissions associated with forceful 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 bagatelle that we do that does not affect the environment and - a little bit down the road - people. Those aged phones that we ' ve heedlessly thrown away will hereafter come back to haunt us through the food that we eat and the water that we drink.

The earth is not a vat for our cell phones and electronic waste, let ' s reprocess cell phones today.