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 obsolete every year. About 20 percent of these senile phones are recycled or sent back to manufacturers for proper disposal. What is treacherous is that 10 % of these discarded phones are thrown away by users - that ' s over 10 million cellular phones sent to giddiness and seep dangerous chemicals in our landfills.


Don ' t propel away those cell phones

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

Cell phones and other electronic waste consonant TV sets, CRT monitors contain acutely toxic substantial metals and chemicals in batteries, circuit boards, and wrapper. Once landfilled, poisonous chemicals from ambulatory phones such 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, plant in cellular phone batteries and elderly computer monitors, is a poisonous metal that can damage concerned connections ( especially in burgeoning children ) and create blood and brain disorders. Long term exposure to lead or its salts ( especially soluble salts or the strong oxidant PbO2 ) can termination to complications analogous kidney damage, reduced IQ, slowed body proliferation, abdominal pain, and surviving mental damage.

According to Dr. Anne Marie Helmenstine, author and leading authority in biomedical sciences, lead has been fix to originate development problems in children and diminishes brain functions even in adults. In a recent annals, Dr. Kim Dietrich from the University of Cincinnati, has associated lead exposure during youthfulness to abnormal criminal behavior in adults. According to Dr. Dietrichs report, their findings implicate early exposure to lead as a risk element for behaviors leading to criminal arrest.

Compared to a TV set or an senile CRT recorder, many of which can contain as much as 5 lbs. of lead, mobile phones contain only traces of this dangerous metal. However, being of the simple number of cell phones that get dumped in landfills each year, the hot water has numerous exponentially - the 500 million cell phones now blighted 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 shrinking system, including standard and the propriety 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 figure 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. Father in cellular phone batteries, exposure to cadmium can also lead to shrinkage in bone density, lung damage, and kidney problems.


Toxic Worship 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 repugnant 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. " Reposeful, millions have cell phones coated with these chemicals are begun out there, endangering everyone ' s health.


Many of our municipal and whistle stop landfills today are engineered to prevent harmful chemicals generated by solid waste from spilling or entrance the surrounding areas and water systems. But no system is masterful, and landfill chemicals will always have the lethal future to impair our water and agricultural realm 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 feel does that come from?

Recycle cell phones

Clearly, the only usage option - if we want to protect the environment and our health - is to recycle cell phones. Motile phone recycling will not only prevent those highly - toxic chemicals from ever coming our landfills, it will make undeniable that useful metals erect in cellular phones relating gold, silver, coltan etc. are kept in the production dtreak. This lowers the demand for fresh raw material and decreases energy consumption and picture 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 zippo that we do that does not affect the environment and - a little bit down the road - people. Those senescent phones that we ' ve heedlessly thrown away will fundamentally 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.