Cell Phone Use Is Increasingly Becoming an Environmental Hazard

Today more than ever people are using cell phones and discarding them in record number which is posing a threat to the environment. Cell phones have become a significant waste disposal problem, due to rapid technology, and cell phone plans offering free phones to be replaced later by a more expensive phone.

Cell phones are replaced when they are unusable but also when they are no longer a good deal for the owner. They are often used only up to 18 months before being replaced.

According to 2001 statistics, there are 129 million cell phone users in the United States, and 400 million users worldwide. Multiply that by the replacement cell phones every 18 months and you have a huge amount of cell phones leaching into the environment if they are not being recycled effectively.

According to World Watch Institute (www.worldwatch.org/node/1482) in 1992, 1% of people worldwide had cell phones. 10 years later 18% or 1.14 billion had cell phones. The biggest threat to the environment is when they are being created and destroyed.

Estimates are that by 2005, consumers "will have stockpiled 500 million used cell phones, that are likely to end up in landfills and leach 142 tons of lead into the environment."

Cell phones contain the following toxic chemicals.

1) Arsenic
2) Brominated compounds (used in flame retardants)
3) Lead (used in solder that attaches components to circuit boards) Lead causes liver damage in adults and neurological development problems in children.
4) Cadmium. Cadmium is the 7th most harmful chemical and can cause cancer.
5) Nickel.
6) Mercury
7) Lithium. Lithium can burn with water exposure. It also has the potential for starting underground fires when present in large quantitites.

All of the above toxic substances can contaminate water supplies and nearby soil.

The biggest environmental cell phone hazard are the semiconductor chips, which contain circuit boards, liquid crystal display, batteries, and hard to recycle plastic casting.

Not only is cell phone use an environmental risk, but it is also a health risk. EPA warns of the health risks related to cell phone usage such as damage to the nervous system, reproductive and developmental problems, and cancer. EPA also lists the toxic compounds found in cell phones as "persistent and bioaccumulative, and toxic chemicals."

Bioaccumulative metals become toxic over a period of time.

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