5 Quick Tips for Detoxing Your Electronics

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Guest Blogger

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Christine Price, Healthy Child Intern:

Televisions, computers, cell phones and video games have all become household staples and much more numerous over the past twenty years. They’ve leaked into every aspect of our existence and seldom does an hour pass without the use of some sort of gadget. Unfortunately, electronics are leaking more than entertainment and efficiency into our lives.

Almost all electronics contain flame retardant chemicals known as brominated flame retardants, or BFRs. While the intention of flame-retardants is to save lives and property, there have also been inadvertent repercussions. BFRs can migrate from their source and accumulate in the human body, creating increased toxicity in the liver, thyroid, and brain.

Children may inhale or ingest toxic dust released from products containing BFRs and other toxic contaminants, specifically electronics. And, fetuses and newborns can be exposed to BFRs that have accumulated in the mother’s blood or breastmilk.

In addition to BFRs, electronics contain heavy metals, such as lead, mercury, and cadmium. Even very small doses of these toxic heavy metals can damage the brain and kidneys. The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition put together an alarming list of the toxic components in computers, including:

Lead & cadmium in computer circuit boards
Cadmium in computer batteries
Lead oxide & sometimes barium in cathode ray tubes
BFRs in printed circuit boards, cables and plastic casing
Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) coated copper cables and plastic computer casings that release highly toxic dioxins & furans when burned
Mercury switches
Mercury in flat panel screens
Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) present in older capacitors & transformers

The toxic heavy metals found in electronics build up in both our bodies and our landfills. Forty per cent of the lead found in landfills originates from consumer electronics. Once there, the potential for contamination of drinking water supplies increases exponentially.

So with electronics being such an essential element of our daily lives, how can we prevent exposure? Follow these five quick tips:

Recycle old TVs, computer desktops, etc using earth911.com. What are you saving that old PC for? HP conducted a survey in 2005 in which 68% of consumers admitted to storing used or unwanted electronics in the home.
- Many manufacturers and retailers offer recycling programs making the process super easy.
Clean! BFRs and heavy metals in your electronics often find their way into household dust. A damp cloth can easily “detox “ a room.
Think twice before buying more “stuff.” Make certain you’re only purchasing products that you absolutely want or need.
On the hunt for the latest, greatest gadget? Be sure to look for electronics that consume less energy and are BFR free.
- Keep an eye out for these brands, which have publicly committed to phasing out all brominated flame retardants: Acer, Apple, Eizo Nanao, LG Electronics, Lenovo, Matsushita, Microsoft, Nokia, Phillips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony-Ericsson, and Toshiba.
Support the Safe Chemicals Act, which would phase out the use of BFRs in electronics manufacturing.

These simple steps will help protect both your health and the environment. As electronics continue to evolve, we need to try our best to be as interested in what chemicals and heavy metals go into these devices, as we are in what they can do.

How many electronics do you have in your home (TVs, computers, video games, cell phones, etc)? Do you have any that are unused and could be recycled? Do you dust yours regularly?

Christine Price is an intern at Healthy Child Healthy World. She currently studies history at Michigan State University.

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The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and not necessarily those of Healthy Child Healthy World.

Image courtesy of Ernst Vikne / CC BY-SA 2.0