Effective actions needed to protect children’s health from toxic e-waste

Protecting millions of children, adolescents and pregnant women around the world whose health is endangered by informal disposal of discarded electrical or electronic equipment, according to a new breakthrough report from the World Health Organization There is an urgent need for effective and binding action to do so. Kids and digital dump site.

In the midst of mass production and disposal, the world is facing a recent international forum describing it as an increase in the “tsunami of e-waste”, endangering life and health. To protect the health of our most valuable resource, children, from the heightened threat of e-waste, just as the world has rallyed to protect the ocean and its ecosystems from plastic and microplastic pollution. Need to rally to. “

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Gebreyes, WHO Executive Director

As many as 12.9 million women work in the informal waste sector and are exposed to toxic e-waste, potentially endangering women and their foets.

Meanwhile, more than 18 million children and adolescents, some young up to the age of 5, are actively engaged in the informal industrial sector, where waste disposal is a sub-sector. Children are often engaged in the recycling of e-waste by parents and guardians because small hands are more dexterous than adults.Other children live, go to school and play near e-waste recycling centers where high levels of toxic chemicals, mainly lead and mercury, can impair their intellectual abilities.

Children exposed to e-waste are particularly vulnerable to the toxic chemicals they contain due to their small size, underdeveloped organs, and fast growth and development. They absorb more pollutants compared to their size and are unable to metabolize or eradicate toxic substances from their bodies.

Impact of e-waste on human health

Workers seeking to recover valuable materials such as copper and gold are at risk of exposure to over 1,000 harmful substances such as lead, mercury, nickel, brominated flame retardants and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

For pregnant mothers, exposure to toxic e-waste can affect fetal health and development throughout their lives. Potential health consequences include negative birth outcomes such as stillbirth and preterm birth, as well as low birth weight and length. Exposure to lead from e-waste recycling activities significantly reduces neonatal behavioral neurological assessment scores, increases the incidence of attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), behavioral problems, and child temperament It is associated with changes in behavior, difficulty in sensory integration, and cognitive and verbal decline. Score.

Other adverse health effects associated with e-waste include altered lung function, respiratory and respiratory effects, DNA damage, hypothyroidism, and chronic late-life such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. This includes an increased risk of illness.

“A child who eats only one egg from Akra, a waste disposal plant in Ghana, absorbs 220 times the European Food Safety Authority’s chlorinated dioxin intake limit,” said Marino El Brundris, WHO’s lead author. Stated. .. “It’s due to improper e-waste management. This is a problem that many countries haven’t yet recognized as a health problem. If they don’t act now, the impact will have devastating health consequences for children. , Will put a heavy burden on the health sector for the next few years. “

Problems that escalate rapidly

The amount of e-waste is skyrocketing worldwide. According to the Global E-waste Statistics Partnership (GESP), 53.6 million metric tons of e-waste was generated, an increase of 21% in the five years to 2019. From a point of view, last year’s e-waste had 350 cruise ships lined up end-to-end, forming a 125km long line. This growth is projected to continue as the use of computers, mobile phones and other electronic devices rapidly becomes obsolete and continues to expand.

According to the latest GESP estimates, only 17.4% of e-waste generated in 2019 will reach formal management or recycling facilities, the rest will be dumped illegally, and overwhelmingly informal work in low- and middle-income countries. Is recycled by the person.

Proper collection and recycling of e-waste is the key to protecting the environment and reducing climate change emissions. In 2019, GESP discovered that 17.4% of the collected and properly recycled e-waste prevented the release of as much as 15 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the environment.

Calling an action

Kids and Digital Dump Site Call for effective and binding action by exporters, importers, and governments to ensure the environmentally sound disposal of e-waste and the health and safety of workers, their families and communities. To monitor exposure to e-waste and health consequences. To promote better reuse of materials. And encourage the production of more durable electronic and electrical equipment.

It also e-builds the health community’s ability to diagnose, monitor and prevent exposure of children and women to toxic substances and raise awareness of more responsible potential co-benefits. -Calls for action to reduce the adverse health effects of waste. Recycling, working with affected communities, advocating better data and health research on the health risks faced by informal e-waste workers.

“Children and adolescents have the right to grow and learn in a healthy environment, and exposure to electrical and electronic waste and its many toxic components definitely affects that right,” said the environment, climate change and health. The department’s director, Dr. Maria Neira, said. At WHO. “The medical sector provides leadership and advocacy, conducts research, influences policy makers, engages communities, reaches out to other sectors, and puts medical issues at the center of e-waste policy. You can play a role by demanding that. “