Greenpeace: Eliminate e-waste
2008-08-06 16:05
Dakar - Greenpeace called on the world's electronics companies on Tuesday to eliminate hazardous chemicals from their products, saying toxic electronic waste from wealthy nations ends up dumped in poor countries despite laws prohibiting it.
The environmental watchdog made the appeal in a new report on the electronic waste trade, which it said was spreading from Asia to West Africa - particularly Ghana, where discarded televisions and computers that contain toxic leftovers are being dismantled by young children.
"Unless companies eliminate all hazardous chemicals from their electronic products and take responsibility for the entire life cycle of their products, this poisonous dumping will continue," said Martin Hojsik, a Greenpeace campaigner. "Electronics companies must not allow their products to end up poisoning the poor around the world."
Many of the old computers, monitors and television sets that end up in Ghana come from the European Union, despite laws there prohibiting the export of such hazardous materials, Greenpeace said.
They are exported as "second hand goods" and theoretically meant to be reusable. But the report cited a EU official as estimating that up to 75% of such goods imported into Africa are broken and cannot be used again.
"Sending old electronic equipment to developing countries is often hailed as 'bridging the digital divide."' Greenpeace said. "But, all too often this simply means dumping useless equipment on the poor."
In Ghana, a Greenpeace team visited two main waste sites - one in the capital and another in the smaller city of Korforidua. They collected soil samples and had them analysed at their labs at Britain's University of Exeter.
"Some of the samples contained toxic metals, including lead, in quantities as much as one hundred times above levels found in uncontaminated soil," Greenpeace said.
The environmental group said phthalates, some of which interfere with sexual reproduction, were found in most of the test samples and one sample contained a high level of chlorinated dioxins, known to promote cancer.
The report said much of the waste in Ghana arrives by ship from Germany, Korea, Switzerland and the Netherlands labeled falsely as "second hand goods".
In Ghana, the discarded waste is dismantled at scrap yards, where it is crushed or burned to separate plastics from more valuable metals like aluminium or copper, a process that pollutes the environment and exposes workers to toxic fumes.
"Much of the work is carried out by children, some as young as five, with no protective equipment," the report said.
Greenpeace's Dr Kevin Brigden said chemicals released during such work "may affect children's developing reproductive systems, while other can affect brain development and the nervous system".
The production of electronic waste has risen dramatically across the globe, Greenpeace said, with many common items such as laptops and cellphones containing hazardous chemicals and materials.
Although the EU officially prohibits such exports, the United States does not.
Greenpeace said some of the discarded computers it found in Ghana had labels indicating they originated from the US Environmental Protection Agency. Hojsik said it was not known exactly how they came here, but it was possible the EPA gave the computers to a US recycler, which then exported them to Ghana.
- AP