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“Are electronics hazardous to your health?" With
trilingual summary
Rapid growth of the consumer electronics industry has been
characterized by ever-decreasing useful life spans for products such
as computers, communications equipment, games, and industrial
controls. Materials used in batteries, lamps, wiring and
terminations, electronic displays, switches, and circuit board
assemblies include heavy metals and organic compounds that are
serious health hazards unless carefully disposed of when electrical
equipment is discarded as obsolete, worn out, or defective.
Recognizing that such discards form the world's
fastest-growing waste stream (estimated at 50 million tonnes
annually), governments at local, national, and international levels
have begun establishing controls on the use and disposal of
potentially dangerous materials in electrical equipment, Drawing the
most attention are two regulations issued by the European Parliament
in January 2003 to take effect in 2006.
The first, the "Restriction of Hazardous
Substances" or RoHS Directive, calls for European Union member states
to limit the use in a wide range of electrical or electronic products
of six hazardous materials: lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent
chromium, and two organic compounds used in plastics. Exemptions
exist for military hardware and some other applications. One of the
most important restrictions is on the use of lead in solder, forcing
manufacturers to find cost-effective substitutes that can require
product design and factory process changes. Similar (and sometimes
more restrictive) regulations have been adopted by Japan, China, and
a number of the United States.
The second EU Directive is known as WEEE (Waste
Electrical and Electronic Equipment). It promotes safe disposal and
recycling of end-of-life products. The Directive is an outgrowth of a
165-nation treaty, the Basel Convention of 1989. Lax enforcement by
often-corrupt local officials, and massive exporting of discards by
Western industrialized nations, has caused electronic discrads
("e-waste") to flood into Asian and African countries where crude
salvage methods have created major health hazards and poisoned the
environment. Although aimed at correcting that situation, WEEE
suffers from unclear enforcement guidelines. In Europe, recycling
rates have been far below WEEE goals.
Meanwhile, as perceived life spans of computers
and cell phones continue to shrink, e-waste disposal remains a
growing problem.
From “Are
electronics hazardous to your health?"
to be published in the
Electrical Apparatus January and February
2007 issues
. Visit our online webstore to
order
copies. © 2007
Barks Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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