While it is well known that the high-tech revolution has radically transformed late 20th century civilization, it is less well-known that high-tech development also harms people's health as well as the environment that sustains all life.
The dark side of high technology reveals polluted drinking water, waste discharges that harm fish and wildlife, high rates of miscarriages, birth defects, and cancer clusters among workers. The high-tech electronics industry uses vast amounts of dangerous chemicals and significantly depletes natural resources to fuel its global expansion and rapidly changing product lines.
There are few other products for which the sum of the environmental impacts of raw material extraction, industrial refining and production, use and disposal is so extensive.
In general, electronic computer equipment is a complicated assembly of more than 1,000 materials, many of which are highly toxic, such as chlorinated and brominated substances, toxic gases, toxic metals, photo-active and biologically active materials, acids, plastics and plastic additives.
Toxic materials in computer components include:
- lead and cadmium in computer circuit boards
- lead oxide and barium in computer monitors' cathode ray tubes
- mercury in switches and flat screens and
- brominated flame retardants on printed circuit boards, cables and plastic casing.
The comprehensive health impacts of the mixtures and material combinations in the products are often not known.
Workers in chip manufacturing are reporting cancer clusters, birth defects and miscarriages. In addition, new evidence is revealing that computer recycling employees have high levels of dangerous chemicals in their blood.
Visit our maps of global high-tech production and the High-Cost of High Tech.
