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ARTICLE #3 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Cell phones qualify as hazardous waste, say researchers
Environmental Science & Technology
The cell telephones that consumers in the United States discard by the millions each year classify as hazardous waste, according to a study published in the current (April 1) issue of the ACS Environmental Science & Technology, a semi-monthly journal.
Oladele A. Ogunseitan and colleagues at the University of California at Irvine cite long-standing concerns about the quantity of consumer electronics products that wind up in dumps and landfills. They estimate that more than 700 million cell phones already have been discarded or are stockpiled awaiting disposal, with 130 million cell phones trashed in 2005 alone.
In the new study, researchers used standard lab procedures to analyze chemicals in simulated cell phone "leachate" the liquid that dribbles out into the soil from cell phones in dumps and landfills. Lead in the leachate was high enough to make cell phones classify as hazardous waste under Federal regulations, the study found. Lead-free phones, however, still are classified as hazardous waste under California regulations due to high levels of copper, nickel, antimony and zinc in
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Contact: Michael Woods
m_woods@acs.org
202-872-4400
American Chemical Society
16-Apr-2007