Oh, what a load of utter BS. :-( The EPA is getting as bad as the EU.
How the hell can such simulations even moderately approach the
conditions in a landfill? Where is the steel in a CPU?
Answer: deliver every piece of electronic equipment with a porous bag
filled with iron filings!
Brian
David Suraski wrote:
> Hello Everyone,
>
> I thought I would pass around this article (without endorsement or
> comment!) for your perusal.
>
> Regards,
>
> David Suraski
> AIM
> +1-401-463-5605 ext. 5210
> www.aimsolder.com
>
>
> Discarded tech devices can be hazardous waste
> Press Trust of India
> Houston, March 9
>
> Electronic gizmos ranging from cell phones to computer mice, once
> discarded, can be really hazardous.
>
> According to a recent study by University of Florida environmental
> engineers, it was found that the devices that make possible e-mail,
> e-news and e-commerce may end their days as e-hazardous waste.
>
> These devices released enough lead in laboratory tests to be classified
> as hazardous waste under federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
> regulations.
>
> The findings, presented last month in a draft report to the EPA, which
> funded the study, could prompt the federal government or individual
> states to change the disposal rules for millions of tonnes of electronic
> devices that now routinely make their way into household trash
> landfills, says UF environmental engineering Associate Professor Tim
> Townsend, lead investigator on the project.
>
> "The bottom line is that when we tested these devices, in many cases,
> they met the EPA definition for regulated hazardous waste," says
> Townsend, who presented his findings last month at an EPA meeting in
> Chicago.
>
> Rapid changes in technology make the issue of "E- waste" pressing.
>
> Experts estimate that more than 20 million personal computers became
> obsolete in 1998 alone, and project more than 60 million personal
> computers will be retired in 2005, Townsend said.
>
> Five years ago, Townsend headed research that concluded cathode ray
> tubes - the "picture tubes" that produce images on standard television
> and computer screens - release enough lead to be classed as hazardous
> waste.
>
> The finding concerned state and federal officials, prompting the EPA to
> provide Townsend $40,000 to test other electronic devices.
>
> In research that began late in 2001, Townsend and four UF graduate
> students examined cell phones, printers, flat-panel monitors, keyboards,
> computer mice, remote controls, VCRs, laptops and central processing
> units, or CPUs, the components that contain the "guts" of personal
> computers.
>
> The researchers subjected many of the e-devices to a standard EPA
> testing procedure for hazardous waste, the Toxicity Characteristic
> Leaching Procedure.
>
> The procedure involves mixing the ground-up devices with an acid
> solution designed to simulate potential conditions in landfills.
> Technicians rotate the mixture for 18 hours in a drum container, and
> then test the results for eight hazardous metals: mercury, arsenic,
> cadmium, barium, silver, selenium, chromium and lead.
>
> While the UF technicians were able to grind up the smaller devices, such
> as cell phones, the task proved difficult for the larger devices such as
> VCRs, Townsend says.
>
> As a result, they developed a modified version of the test: a sealed
> 55-gallon drum suspended on an axle connected to a large electric motor.
> They placed disassembled printers and other large electronic devices in
> the drum, added the acid solution, then rotated the contents for 18
> hours and tested the leachate.
>
> Every type of electronic device leached lead above the hazardous waste
> levels in at least some cases, the tests showed. The lead comes from the
> solder used to connect the circuits. None of seven other hazardous
> metals showed up as problems in the tests.
>
> For example, 28 of 38 cell phones tested using the standard procedure
> produced leachate that exceeded the EPA standards of five milligrams of
> lead per liter. Seven of eight VCRs tested with the modified test
> exceeded the standard.
>
> The results were less dramatic for several other devices, but many still
> exceeded the standard.
>
> Curiously, the experiments found that computer CPUs frequently exceeded
> the hazardous waste limit in the modified test, but rarely in the
> standard test.
>
> Upon closer look at the data, the researchers realised the CPUs and
> other devices containing a large amount of steel tended to leach less
> lead when the devices were ground up, which they determined resulted
> from the electrochemical conditions of the solution.
>
> "The more steel that you have in a device, the more it tends to diminish
> the lead that dissolved in the TCLP leachate," Townsend says.
>
> Townsend's results may be important for both federal environmental
> regulators and individual states.
>
> Marilyn Goode, an environmental protection specialist at EPA
> headquarters in Washington D.C., says the agency would have to do
> further research before making any decision on new rules for e-waste
> disposal.
>
> However, she says states may choose to institute their own rules, as
> they do in other cases.
>
>
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