The Hidden Risks of E-Waste: Perspectives from Environmental Engineering, Epidemiology, Environmental Health, and Human-Computer Interaction

Abstract

Electronic waste (e-waste) is a rising global environmental and health inequity issue. Rapid and excessive manufacture and use of electronics is causing global e-waste buildup. While there is an opportunity to recover important and/or expensive resources (e.g., recovery of plastic, copper, gold, and platinum) via recycling, these discarded electronics contain many hazardous contaminants including heavy metals (e.g., lead, chromium, copper, mercury, nickel, zinc) and organic compounds (e.g., halogenated flame retardants). Each of these chemicals has been linked with adverse health effects, i.e., respiratory diseases, impairment of central nervous systems, carcinogenesis, and others. Because proper and safe e-waste recycling is expensive, informal recycling abounds, and illegal flows of e-waste (~60-90% of globally produced e-waste) occur from high- to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The informal repair and recycling of electronic devices in LMICs often occur without implementing proper protective measures for the workers or their environment. Commonly, e-waste repair/recycling workers are from poor and marginalized populations and in many cases, represent highly susceptible groups, such pregnant women and children. In this chapter, we discuss how the technological advancement of the electronics field has given rise to a worldwide problem.