Due to the increase in demand and production for electronic products in the past decades, many problems become apparent regarding the whereabouts of the ever rising amount of electronic waste (e-waste). A growing supply of this waste is illegally exported to recycling facilities in developing countries in order to salvage reusable materials and traces of precious metals. In these foreign facilities, open burning and acid stripping practises take place, but along with recovering the prize comes the release of pollutants and toxic heavy metals. Not only do these contaminants cause health problems for the site workers, they also negatively affect the surrounding environment, including fields, rivers, soils, and sediments (Wang et al., 2009).
A recent study on human exposure to heavy metals in an electronic waste recycling area, published in Bioresource Technology during 2009, suggests that scalp hair can be used as an indicator on the exposure of heavy metals and toxic elements to humans. The six researchers, Thanh Wang, Jianjie Fu, Yawei Wang, Chunyang Liao, Yongqing Tao, and Guibin Jiang, believe that since studies on the potential exposures (both occupationally and environmentally) due to e-waste recycling activities are inadequate, it is important to be able to examine these residential exposures using the least invasive and hazardous, but most convenient techniques. They proposed that human hair scalp could be used to assess the amounts of e-waste contaminants that are exposed and state that their study is one of the very few that deals with “human exposure to trace elements and heavy metals associated in areas with e-waste recycling” (Wang et al., 2009).
The study was purposefully chosen to take place in the south eastern Chinese province Taizhou, where residents have been directly or indirectly involved with a local e-waste recycling site that has been in existence for almost two decades. Hair samples, which were collected from volunteer participants during their routine sessions at nearby barber shops, were analyzed using the external standard calibration method to detect total concentrations of arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, copper, manganese, nickel, lead, and, vanadium (Wang et al., 2009). These samples were then compared with samples from two cities located about 130km north and 160km northwest of Taizhou.
The results showed that all of the mentioned elements above were found at higher levels than those in the controlled areas except for arsenic and vanadium. The researchers also stated that compared to non-occupationally exposed populations in Sweden and France, the element levels were all greater, especially lead, which proved to show 80 times higher levels (Wang et al., 2009).
From these results, Wang and his co-researchers concluded that human scalp hair can be used to determine the exposure of toxic heavy elements and metals to residential and occupational personnel directly or indirectly involved with e-waste recycling areas. It provides a non-invasive and cost-effective method, and is beneficial because by knowing the levels of exposure, scientists can further their knowledge on the negative effects of unregulated recycling practises such as open burning and acid stripping.
Reference
Wang, T. et al. (2009) Use of scalp hair as indicator of human exposure to heavy metals in an electronic waste recycling area. Environmental Pollution, issue 157, March 2009. http://journals2.scholarsportal.info/tmp/12866323311903835193.pdf. Accessed 08 October 2009.
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I personally found your article topic very interesting. The responsible management of E- waste is definatly a significant issue for developed countries. Over all the article was very well done, the coverage of the study was thurough yet presented in the appropriate language for a secondary source. My only suggestion is that you could have a few more connections to make the topic more relavent. Your connections could explore other effects and causes of this issue such as: the reason why people resort to this, the politics behind it or even the economic impact that this practise has on us. All in all though a very good job!
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ReplyDeleteI found this post to be well structured and organized. It successfully addressed each of the three requirements of the assignment, while being easy and enjoyable to read.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement that the uncertain fate of our e-waste is becoming a problem. I believe one could argue that it is becoming just as concerning as the ever-growing amount of such waste that we produce.
The article went even further to highlight some new and specific impacts of electronics waste. By showing how this affects a particular group of people, the article can become more relevant and important to readers. Other people who are similarly affected by occupational hazards may certainly be interested in the hair analysis methods you discussed. This could include welders, miners and the many Canadians who work in similar industrial and manufacturing environments, among others.
I really like how you summarized what the research was about in your introduction. This blog seemes like a real report on the primary article because you did a good job of explaiing the procedure without being too wordy, you presented the results, and you stated the conclusion.
ReplyDeleteI also really liked how you talked about the relevance of the research to everyday life and you discussed how we can improve the issue because of the research done in this study. I think that you did a really good job on this blog!