From Treehugger.com:
When used computers, televisions and other electronic products are ready to go up to that big scrap heap in the sky, they often end their journeys lying in some large landfill in China. Indeed, over the last decade, China has quickly become the de facto repository for developed countries’ discarded electronics, known collectively as “e-waste.”
While it’s been known for years that e-waste poses serious health risks to Chinese workers who recycle the products to extract precious materials like gold, a new study has just revealed that Guiyu , a major e-waste recycling center, has the highest documented levels of polychlorodibenzo-p-dioxins (which are known to cause cancer) and polychlorodibenzofurans in the world. Ping’an Peng of the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry and his colleagues arrived at these conclusions by sampling Guiyu’s air for a week during the summer and the winter to measure levels of dioxins. [Full Text]
