E-WASTE MANAGEMENT ITS IMPACT ON HEALTH AND ECONOMY-A CASE STUDY

Abstract

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. Electronic equipments contain many hazardous metallic contaminants such as lead, cadmium, and beryllium and brominate 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.