The Electronics Industry and Their Chemical Effects in the Environment of Arid Regions of Northwest of Mexico

Abstract

The electronics industry is very important in the world economy, because is one of more dynamic activities, due to a great quantity and different electronic products manufactured and used in a lot quotidian operations. This type of industry has strongly attracted attention to the environmental authorities in the recent 10 years, due to the deterioration that causes to the ecosystems. The electronics industry generates a lot liquid chemical waste, which are thrown into soils and aquifers that are close to companies. The interest of the relation of environmental problems and the electronics industry has manifested with more frequency, from 20 years ago, especially in countries that regulate strictly to care the ecosystems, being some countries of Europe, United States and Japan. The lack of control in certain liquid wastes from activities of the electronics industry, that are discharged into areas next to companies or by the drainage systems has caused a great deterioration of the ecosystems. This occurs with some companies installed in the Mexicali city dedicated to manufacture electronic products. This city is located in the northwest of Mexico that is a border city with the United States of America (USA), where some soils and aquifers are been damaged for some years. This has negative effects in the population too, by the generation and proliferation of respiratory diseases (RD), being a beginning of some environmental and health crisis, particularly in areas adjacent to these companies. This study examined the environmental problems of the industry electronics in Mexicali, and the increase of persons that suffer of RD, being principally in the winter periods. The analysis was made based in two steps, being the first to evaluate the pollution of soil and water levels with the principal climatic factors as relative humidity (RH) and temperature variations around two companies of the electronics sector to be correlated with the RD levels. The second step was to analyze the pH of soil and water, around the three companies evaluated in this city and to elaborate an evaluation of soils with the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) technique to know their level of deterioration. The study was made from 2018 to 2019.