Toxic chemicals from uncontrolled e-waste recycling: Exposure, body burden, health impact

2021 ◽  
pp. 127792
Author(s):  
Siyi Lin ◽  
Muhammad Ubaid Ali ◽  
Chunmiao Zheng ◽  
Zongwei Cai ◽  
Ming Hung Wong
Author(s):  
Wenlong Huang ◽  
Xiaoling Shi ◽  
Kusheng Wu

Guiyu accommodates millions of tons of e-waste from overseas and domestic sources each year and is notorious for its e-waste dismantling industry. As a consequence, Guiyu has been described as “the world’s most toxic place” and “junk town”. Informal e-waste recycling activities have caused severe pollution to the local environment and are associated with extensive health problems to the residents. This review provides updated insights on the body burden of heavy metals derived from e-waste and health outcomes resulted from lead (Pb) exposure. The review identified that Guiyu has been highly contaminated by heavy metals, especially Pb. Excessive exposure to Pb has been associated with multi-system and long-term effects in neonates and children, covering nervous, cardiovascular, adaptive immune, and hematologic systems as well as chromosome and DNA damage. Our review indicates strong associations that emphasize the need to develop strong regulations for prevention of exposure and health consequences in Guiyu and similar sites around the world.


2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Y. Yuan ◽  
David A. Dornfeld

Toxic chemicals used in product design and manufacturing are grave concerns due to their toxic impact on human health. Implementing sustainable material selection strategies on toxic chemicals can substantially improve the sustainability of products in both design and manufacturing processes. In this paper, a schematic method is presented for characterizing and benchmarking the human health impact of toxic chemicals, as a visual aid to facilitate decision-making in the material selection process for sustainable design and manufacturing. In this schematic method, the human health impact of a toxic chemical is characterized by two critical parameters: daily exposure risk R and environmental persistence T. The human health impact of a toxic chemical is represented by its position in the R−T two-dimensional plot, which enables the screening and benchmarking of toxic chemicals to be easily made through comparing their relative positions in the characterization plot. A case study is performed on six toxic chemicals commonly used as solvents for cleaning and degreasing in product development and manufacturing.


2019 ◽  
pp. 155-159
Author(s):  
Philip E. Robinson ◽  
Cindy R. Stroup ◽  
M. Virginia Cone ◽  
Marialice Ferguson ◽  
Anna S. Hammons ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Chris Y. Yuan ◽  
David A. Dornfeld

Toxic chemicals used in product design and manufacturing are grave concerns due to their significant impact on human health. Sustainable material selections are needed by industry to reduce the overall impact of toxic chemicals in both design and manufacturing. In this paper, we integrate the human health impact assessment into standard material selection process for developing a sustainable material selection metric for decision support in design and manufacturing. A schematic method is presented for characterizing and benchmarking the human health impact of toxic chemicals. A case study is performed on six toxic chemicals used as solvents in semiconductor manufacturing. Reliability of the schematic benchmarking results is checked and validated by comparing the results with that of conventional Human Toxicity Potential (HTP) method.


2007 ◽  
Vol 149 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.H. Wong ◽  
S.C. Wu ◽  
W.J. Deng ◽  
X.Z. Yu ◽  
Q. Luo ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
G.A. Miranda ◽  
M.A. Arroyo ◽  
C.A. Lucio ◽  
M. Mongeotti ◽  
S.S. Poolsawat

Exposure to drugs and toxic chemicals, during late pregnancy, is a common occurrence in childbearing women. Some studies have reported that more than 90% of pregnant women use at least 1 prescription; of this, 60% used more than one. Another study indicated that 80% of the consumed drugs were not prescribed, and of this figure, 95% were “over-the-counter” drugs. Acetaminophen, the safest of all over-the-counter drugs, has been reported to induce fetal liver necrosis in man and animals and to have abortifacient and embryocidal action in mice. This study examines the degree to which acetaminophen affects the neonatal liver and kidney, when a fatty diet is simultaneously fed to the mother during late pregnancy.Timed Swiss Webster female mice were gavaged during late pregnancy (days 16-19) with fat suspended acetaminophen at a high dose, HD = 84.50 mg/kg, and a low dose, LD = 42.25 mg/kg; a control group received fat alone.


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