http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2004/112-13/forum.html?section=children#el
ec

Science in the service of humanity is technology, 
but lack of wisdom may make the service harmful. 
Isaac Asimov 

Hazardous Waste  

Electronics, Lead, and Landfills 

Ironically, some of our most advanced technologies, when discarded, may
represent a rapidly expanding and sometimes unregulated exposure to a
toxicant that plagued even the ancient Romans: lead. Almost all
electronic devices contain lead, and such devices are proliferating--and
becoming obsolete--at breathtaking speed. A University of Florida
environmental engineer is researching the potential environmental fate
of the lead found in electronics sent to landfills. In a report
sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and issued
15 July 2004, Timothy G. Townsend described his study of 12 different
types of electronic items and his finding that the items leached lead at
concentrations exceeding the EPA threshold for categorizing a waste as
hazardous. 

  
Obsolete and overflowing. Certain electronic items have become
practically disposable, and are tossed into landfills as soon as the
newest version arrives. Once there, however, are they leaching lead at
hazardous rates?
image credit: Dynamic Graphics Group/Creatas/Alamy  

Townsend's goal is to help landfill regulators and managers decide how
to allocate scarce resources. He explains, "Maybe they have to choose
what type of waste to recycle--tires or electronics?" By discovering
whether electronics leach toxic chemicals, he says, "we might help a
community decide." He focused on testing for lead because it happens to
extract well under the test procedure he used--which is modeled on
landfill conditions--and thus may be likely to leach from a landfill. 

Townsend's report, RCRA Toxicity Characterization of Computer CPUs and
Other Discarded Electronic Devices, expanded on his earlier research on
cathode ray tubes (CRTs) used in computer monitors and televisions. CRTs
contain an average of about four pounds of lead. There are smaller
quantities in the solder used in other electronic devices. 

Townsend performed an EPA test known as the toxicity characteristic
leaching procedure (TCLP) on a variety of electronic items including
computer CPUs (central processing units), televisions, videocassette
recorders, printers, cellular phones, remote controls, computer mice and
keyboards, and smoke alarms. The TCLP test determines the mobility of
analytes present in waste. Following the protocol, the devices were
ground up, mixed with an acetic acid-based simulated leachate fluid, and
rotated in a drum container for 18 hours, after which the leachate was
tested for metal concentrations. In the TCLP, lead concentrations above
5 milligrams per liter are considered hazardous. All the devices
Townsend tested leached lead over this threshold under some conditions. 

But is the lead that is actually in landfills a health threat? "It has
never been shown that lead is actually leaching out of landfills," says
Fern Abrams, director of environmental policy at IPC-Association
Connecting Electronics Industries, an industry group based in
Northbrook, Illinois. And although lead is known to be present in
landfills, some of it may come from other constituents. "Electronics in
general are one percent of the waste that goes into a landfill," says
Jan Whitworth, a policy analyst with the Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality. So if lead were to be found in leachate, it would
be very hard to say for sure whether it had come from electronics. 

Even so, the European Union has banned lead solder in certain electronic
devices beginning in 2006, due to landfill concerns. California already
bans disposal of CRTs and televisions in household waste landfills.
Oladele Ogunseitan, an associate professor of social ecology at the
University of California, Irvine, who is evaluating the phaseout of lead
solder, thinks it makes sense to allow manufacturers to use hazardous
materials when alternatives are not available, but to require recycling.
Today, many computer manufacturers will recycle discarded computers, but
often will charge a fee. 

Others believe hazardous substances must be removed from products
altogether. Mamta Khanna, pollution prevention program manager at the
nonprofit activist Center for Environmental Health in Oakland,
California, would like electronics manufacturers to take cradle-to-grave
responsibility for their products. "Once they have to bear the burden of
disposal, they will use less hazardous materials," says Khanna. "Why
wait for years of study to determine when these toxic materials will
start leaching and poisoning us, when electronics makers can start using
safer materials today?" Khanna also points out that electronics waste is
associated with other potentially toxic chemicals, including mercury,
chromium, and brominated flame retardants. 

To simulate landfill conditions more accurately than can be done in a
lab with the TCLP, Townsend is now conducting an experiment in which he
has buried garbage and electronics waste. Simulated rainfall is added
periodically, with leachate forming as the water percolates through the
waste. Results will be available in about two years. Next year the EPA
expects to issue a rule limiting how CRTs can be disposed of nationwide,
according to agency environmental protection specialist Marilyn Goode. 

Valerie J. Brown 

Lead  

Washington's Water Woes 

For at least two years the concentration of lead in Washington, D.C.,
drinking water has dramatically exceeded the action level at which the
Safe Drinking Water Act requires water systems to address the problem.
By this summer, additional steps had been taken to address water quality
through treatment, but these steps will take months to become fully
effective. Indeed, the controversy surrounding the problem resembles the
plot of a political potboiler, and blood tests and water filters are
still hot topics among Washingtonians. 

Of approximately 130,000 residences served by the District of Columbia
Water and Sewer Authority (DCWASA), an estimated 18% have lead service
pipes. Lead is in some older solder and plumbing fixtures as well. Paint
and dust remain the main sources of lead exposure in the United States,
but on average 10-20% of U.S. environmental lead exposure comes from
drinking water, according to the EPA. (Experts largely agree, however,
that the Safe Drinking Water Act amendments have greatly reduced
exposure from the lead service pipes that still serve many households in
older communities throughout the country.) Lead exposure impairs
intellectual and physical development in fetuses and young children. In
adults, it appears to increase the risk for hypertension and kidney
disease. 

Under the Lead and Copper Rule of the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), water systems are required to develop a plan to lower lead
levels if 10% of residences tested exceed 15 parts per billion (ppb).
According to Alexandra Teitz, minority counsel for the House Committee
on Government Reform, 73% of one set of water samples from Washington
homes exceeded the action level, with numerous samples exceeding 100 ppb
and some exceeding 300 ppb. Moreover, before 2002, DCWASA was required
to test only 50 residences each year. 

Washington's recent water quality troubles may have begun as early as
November 2000. That's when health officials, with the EPA's approval,
stopped using chlorine disinfection because of its by-products. The city
switched to a chlorine-ammonia compound called chloramine to disinfect
the water, while using pH adjustments to control corrosion. Unbeknownst
to scientists and water utilities at the time, says Johnnie Hemphill,
interim director for public affairs at DCWASA, pH adjustments are not as
effective without chlorine. The absence of chlorine was not implicated
until 2004--water system officials used chlorine in April and May of
that year, and lead levels temporarily dropped, says Hemphill. 

Consumers were first informed of the elevated lead levels in October
2002 via water bill inserts and a mailed brochure--means that some
critics say tended to downplay the situation. As Hemphill explains it,
the EPA then demanded that DCWASA explain whether it had failed to
adequately monitor for lead or to adequately alert the public and the
EPA about the elevated levels. 

At the same time, members of Congress charged the EPA with failing to
adequately protect the country's drinking water. "The District and its
residents were unknowingly forced to serve as a 'canary in the coal
mine' for lead in drinking water," asserted Representative Henry Waxman
(D-California) in a statement presented at a congressional hearing in
May 2004. "We have now been clearly warned about the flaws in our
national program on lead in drinking water." 

In June, officials in Washington began adding phosphoric acid, a food
additive, to a small portion of the system to protect the pipes. In
July, DCWASA accelerated its timetable for replacing its lead service
lines, promising to complete the job by 2010 (under EPA regulations,
water systems need replace only a small percentage of public service
lines per year and may approve lines using lead testing in lieu of
actual pipe replacement). The city is offering loans to those residents
who want to replace the part of the line on their property, which is the
homeowner's responsibility. 

Blood tests, which the city has offered for free to residents, are
indicating that the number of Washingtonians with high blood lead levels
has not increased, Hemphill says. But this good news is overshadowed by
studies showing that even at blood levels below the current cutoff of 10
micrograms per deciliter (µg/dL), lead can lower children's IQ and cause
behavior problems, says Lynn Goldman, an environmental health scientist
at The Johns Hopkins University. A task force from the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention is considering recommending that the
cutoff be lowered to 5 µg/dL, although Goldman notes that many experts
think there is no threshold for the toxic effects of lead. 

Tina Adler 

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