Hazardous Chemicals Leak from E-waste
Apple Acts Responsibly Toward Carbon Footprint and E-waste
Oct 7, 2009
While utility companies, recycling facilities, and even state legislatures fight the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and greenhouse gas standards as well as every act including the Clean Air Act, one company steps forward to declare its true carbon footprint while resigning from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Apple, one of the world’s largest producers of electronic technology, stated their position: "Apple is committed to protecting the environment and the communities in which we operate around the world," Catherine Novelli, Apple's vice president of worldwide government affairs, said in a letter to Thomas Donahue, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce president and CEO. "We strongly object to the Chamber's recent comments opposing the EPA's effort to limit greenhouse gases."
The company has taken a broad view of its contribution to pollution, using a ‘life-cycle analysis’ to calculate greenhouse gas emissions for each product. Apple bases calculations on each product from production through transportation, consumer use and ultimately recycling. The company cites that 53 percent of its carbon footprint comes from consumer use of its products. Apple also is a leader in reducing the use of chlorine and bromine in its process.
More E-waste Means More Hazardous Chemicals
With electronic waste quickly becoming the fastest growing portion of municipal solid waste, it greatly increases the threat of hazardous chemicals including lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium, polyvinyl chlorides.
- Lead is a well known pollutant, perhaps first brought to light as an ingredient banned from house paints. It can damage the brain and nervous system. Short-term exposure causes vomiting, diarrhea, convulsions, coma or even death. Ongoing exposure, even small amounts, can be harmful to infants and young children affecting intellectual development, behavior, size and hearing of infants. Lead inhaled or ingested by pregnant women can also pose a danger to the health of unborn children. Anemia is common.
- Cadmium is used primarily for metal plating and coating operations in a wide range of industries as well as in nickel-cadmium and solar batteries and in pigments It can affect kidney, liver, bone and blood. Short periods of exposure may result in nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle cramps, liver injury, shock and renal failure.
- Mercurycomes in three varieties – methylmercury, elemental mercury and inorganic and organic mercury compounds – all of them causing health problems. Methylmercury is most detrimental to fetuses, affecting their nervous systems and causing severe birth defects. Pregnant women can ingest mercury by eating fish and shellfish. Breathing elemental mercury may cause tremors, emotional changes, headaches, inability to think straight, and ultimately death. Exposure to this form may come from release of mercury from a product containing it such as a thermometer, or electrical device such as a gas or electric meter. The third form of mercury, organic and inorganic compounds, usually enters the body through the gastrointestinal system and can destroy that system, cause mental impairment and memory loss, and can destroy the kidneys.
- Hexavalent Chromium causes lung cancer and can damage nose, throat and lungs. It most often is encountered on the job – painters and welders may be the two occupations most at risk. All forms of chromium are considered carcinogenic.
- Polyvinyl chlorides, a colorless gas with a sweet odor, are found in most manufacturers and in our homes. It is used in the manufacture of building materials, automobiles, electrical supplies, medical supplies, and has leached into drinking water, primarily from plastics manufacturers. It is a carcinogen, increasing cancer risk and also causing neurological damage.
EPA Cracks Down
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is cracking down on mismanagement of hazardous chemicals. Taking on individual companies proves costly and time consuming for both sides of the lawsuit. Each case represents hours and money, men and women, and cost to taxpayers as the EPA tracks down and proves their claims against one company at a time. And not just little unknowns, such as a scrap recycling facility in Blue Island near Chicago that failed to recover or verify recovery of ozone-depleting refrigerants. In Oct. 2009, it was reported that they must pay a $30,000 fine and spend another $30,000 to fund an environmental project. But companies with recognized and respected brands such as Trident Seafoods, Dupont, and BP Oil Products.
In August, 2009, EPA filed suit against Midwest Generation for the amount of pollution spewed into the air around Chicago from the refitted power plants that had outlived their safe use. Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan documented thousands of pollution violations at the six power plants including the Fisk plant on the near west side of Chicago which has been producing power from burning coal since 1903. Other power plants involved in the lawsuit are the Crawford plant in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood and plants in Joliet, Romeoville, Waukegan and downstate Pekin, Illinois.
In the 1990s, Ohio stood up against the Clean Air Act, giving coal burning utilities carte blanche to burn at will, earning the state the worst pollution standards of the entire country.
With Apple’s new description of its responsibility, perhaps it will set an example for other companies to follow its lead.
For more information on E-waste and recycling read
E-waste Recycling Attracts Senate Attention
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