Introduction
In
India, the quantity of “e-waste” or electronic waste has now become a
major problem. Disposal of e-waste is an emerging global environmental
and public health issue, as this waste has become the most rapidly
growing segment of the formal municipal waste stream in the world.
E-waste or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) are loosely
discarded, surplus, obsolete, broken, electrical or electronic
devices.
In India most of the waste electronic items are stored at households as
people do not know how to discard them. This ever-increasing waste is
very complex in nature and is also a rich source of metals such as gold,
silver, and copper, which can be recovered and brought back into the
production cycle. So e-waste trade and recycling alliances provide
employment to many groups of people
in India. Around 25,000 workers including children are involved in
crude dismantling units in Delhi alone where 10,000–20,000 tonnes of
e-waste is handled every year by bare hands. Improper dismantling and
processing of e-waste render it perilous to human health and our
ecosystem. Therefore, the need of proper e-waste management has been
realized.It is necessary to review the public health risks and strategies to combat this growing menace.
Burden of E-Waste
In
India, solid waste management, with the emergence of e-waste, has
become a complicated task. The total waste generated by obsolete or
broken down electronic and electrical equipment was estimated to be
1,46,000 tonnes for the year 2005, which is expected to exceed 8,00,000
tonnes by 2012.
However, according to the Greenpeace Report, in 2007, India generated
380,000 tonnes of e-waste. Only 3% of this made it to the authorized
recyclers’ facilities. One of the reasons for this is that the India has
also become a dumping ground for many developed nations. The Basel
Action Network (BAN) stated in a report that 50-80% of e-waste collected
by the USA is exported to India, China, Pakistan, Taiwan, and a number
of African countries.
India is one of the fastest growing economies of the world and the
domestic demand for consumer durables has been skyrocketing. From 1998
to 2002, there was a 53.1% increase in the sales of domestic household
appliances, both large and small all over the world.
Another report estimated that in India, business and individual
households make approximately 1.38 million personal computers obsolete
every year, accelerating the rate of e-waste generation, which is around 10%, annually going to affect environmental health indicators.
Health Impacts
Electronic
equipments contain many hazardous metallic contaminants such as lead,
cadmium, and beryllium and brominated flame-retardants .
The fraction including iron, copper, aluminum, gold, and other metals
in e-waste is over 60%, while plastics account for about 30% and the
hazardous pollutants comprise only about 2.70%.
Of many toxic heavy metals, lead is the most widely used in electronic
devices for various purposes, resulting in a variety of health hazards
due to environmental contamination.
Lead enters biological systems via food, water, air, and soil. Children
are particularly vulnerable to lead poisoning – more so than adults
because they absorb more lead from their environment()
and their nervous system and blood get affected. It is found that the
e-waste recycling activities had contributed to the elevated blood lead
levels in children living in China, which is one of the popular
destinations of e-waste.
This was due to that fact that the processes and techniques used during
the recycling activities were very primitive. Various studies have
reported the soaring levels of toxic heavy metals and organic
contaminants in samples of dust, soil, river sediment, surface water,
and groundwater of Guiyu in China. In the same areas, the residents had a
high incidence of skin damage, headaches, vertigo, nausea, chronic
gastritis, and gastric and duodenal ulcers.
Further it was found that the blood lead levels of children were higher
than the mean level in China, and there was no significant difference
between boys and girls.
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