Future Risk Assessments of E-waste in Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Abstract

Technical development in the field of electronics exceeded all expectations in terms of production and innovation, which made human life captive to electronic devices such as mobile phones, computers and their peripherals, TVs…etc. This increasing growth in quantity of these devices and their relatively short life-cycles has led to excessive accumulation of E-waste end up as landfills. Due to a large amount of toxic substances of these E-wastes, there are huge alarming hazards on the environment and human health. Some of these E -wastes contain materials such as Mercury, lead, cadmium, phosphorus and other hazardous substances which have serious impacts on the environment and human health. This research has carried field-study to investigate the magnitude of the E-waste and the scale of the impact to the environment and health in the Duhok Governorate in Kurdistan region of Iraq. The study proposes appropriate solutions to E-waste recycling and minimizes its negative impact.