E-Waste is Harmful to Health
Electronic waste affects nearly every system in the human body because the materials that make up e-waste contain a plethora of toxic components, including mercury, lead, cadmium, polybrominated flame retardants, barium, and lithium. Even the plastic casings of electronic products contain polyvinyl chloride. The health effects of these toxins on humans include birth defects and damage to the brain, heart, liver, kidney and skeletal system. They will also significantly affect the human body’s nervous and reproductive systems.When e-waste is warmed up, toxic chemicals are released into the air damaging the atmosphere. The damage to the atmosphere is one of the biggest environmental impacts from e-waste. When electronic waste is thrown away in landfills their toxic materials seep into groundwater, affecting both land and sea animals. This can also affect the health of the people in the developing countries where most of the electronic waste in dumped.
Other Health Effects
DNA breaks can increase the likelihood of developing cancer. DNA damages are a special problem in non-dividing or slowly dividing cells, where unrepaired damages will tend to accumulate over time. On the other hand, in rapidly dividing cells, unrepaired DNA damages that do not kill the cell by blocking replication will tend to cause replication errors and thus mutation. Elevated Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) levels can cause damage to cell structures.
