E-waste: impacts, issues and management strategies
-
Mumtaz Hussain
and
Saniea Mumtaz
Abstract
The present electronic era has seen massive proliferation of electrical and electronic equipment especially during the last two decades. These gadgets have become indispensable components of human life. The gravity of this sensitive 21st century problem is being felt by relevant stakeholders from the community to global level. Consequently, the annual global generation of e-waste is estimated to be 20–50 million tons. According to the Basel Action Network, 500 million computers contain 287 billion kilograms (kg) plastics; 716.7 million kg lead; and 286,700 kg mercury. These gadgets contain over 50 elements from the periodic table. The lethal components include heavy metals (like cadmium, mercury, copper, nickel, lead, barium, hexavalent chromium and beryllium); phosphor; plastics; and brominated flame retardants. These are persistent, mobile, and bioaccumulative toxins that remain in the environment but their forms are changed and are carcinogens, mutagens and teratogens. The ensuing hazardous waste has created deleterious impacts on physical, biological and socioeconomic environments. The lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere of Earth are being gravely polluted. Human beings and other biodiversity face fatal diseases, such as cancer, reproductive disorders, neural damages, endocrine disruptions, asthmatic bronchitis, and brain retardation. Marginal populations of developing countries living in squatter/slums are most vulnerable. Numerous issues are associated with uncontrolled generation, unscientific and environmentally inappropriate recycling processes for the extraction of heavy and precious metals (e.g., gold, platinum, and silver), illegal transboundary shipments from advanced to developing countries and weak conventions/legislations at global and national levels. Although the Basel Convention has been ratified by most countries, illicit trading/trafficking of hazardous substances remains unchecked, sometimes “disguised” as donations. The fact of matter is that vested business interests have surpassed ethical values. Existing scenarios of unbridled e-waste generation has attained alarming levels for humanity. This warrants immediate attention by public and private sectors, civil society, NGOs, industrialists and the business community for the protection of nature and natural resources from future destruction. Multipronged strategies need to be adopted for the management of e-waste encompassing administrative, technical, environmental, regulatory, legislative, educative, stakeholders’ participation and global cooperation.
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©2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- The Pacific Basin Consortium for Environment and Health
- Environmental Exposures in Indigenous Communities
- Environmental exposure in indigenous communities: an international perspective
- Novel materials for environmental remediation of oil sands contaminants
- Metals
- Long-term health consequences of prenatal arsenic exposure: links to the genome and the epigenome
- Health hazards and mitigation of chronic poisoning from arsenic in drinking water: Taiwan experiences
- Remediation of mercury-contaminated soil – a case study
- Bioaccessibility, release kinetics, and molecular speciation of arsenic and lead in geo-dusts from the Iron King Mine Federal Superfund site in Humboldt, Arizona
- Mercury poisoning dentistry: high-level indoor air mercury contamination at selected dental sites
- Hazardous Waste
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- Modeling the emission sources for polychlorinated biphenyls in India: implications for human health risk assessment
- Microorganism-assisted phytoremediation of heavy metal and endosulfan contaminated soil
- Chemicals: friends and foes
- Spatial distribution of persistent organic pollutants in the surface water of River Brahmaputra and River Ganga in India
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- Water
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- Solar membrane distillation: desalination for the Navajo Nation
- Climate change and managing water crisis: Pakistan’s perspective
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- Mining
- Socially responsible mining: the relationship between mining and poverty, human health and the environment
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- Nanotechnology and toxicology
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- Combating infectious diseases in the Pacific Islands: sentinel surveillance, environmental health, and geospatial tools
- Projected health impacts of heat events in Washington State associated with climate change
- Community-based approaches to environmental health research around the globe
- Air Pollution
- Particulate air pollution and cardiovascular disease – it is time to take it seriously
- Chemical exposure and respiratory health of children in an industrial setting
- Fine particles characterization in residential homes located in different microenvironment of India
- Respiratory health risk assessment of children living close to industrial areas in Indonesia
