What are the environmental and public health impacts of cell phone waste?
There are more than 500 million used cell phones in the US sitting on shelves or in our landfills, and another 130 million will be added this year alone. The problem is growing at a rate of more than 2 million phones per week! Cell phones contain toxic materials such as lead, mercury, beryllium, arsenic, cadmium, and antimony. If incinerated these substances can pollute the air, in landfills they can leach into groundwater. Many of the materials found in cell phones are also on the EPA’s list of persistent bioaccumulative toxins (PBTs). Because PBTs accumulate in fatty tissue of humans and animals, the toxins are gradually concentrated, putting those at the top of the food chain at the greatest risk, especially children. According to the EPA, “PBTs are associated with a range of adverse human health effects, including damage to the nervous system, reproductive and developmental problems, cancer and genetic impacts.
