Much toxic computer waste lands in Third World

Whoa…

Much toxic computer waste lands in Third World

Investigators who visited the waste sites in Guiyu, China, in December witnessed men, women and children pulling wires from computers and burning them at night, fouling the air with carcinogenic smoke.

Other laborers, making $1.50 a day and working with little or no protection, burned plastics and circuit boards or poured acid on electronic parts to extract silver and gold. Many pried open printer cartridges – whose hazards are uncertain – and smashed lead-laden cathode ray tubes from computer monitors, the report said.

Consequently, the ground water is so polluted that drinking water has to be trucked in from a town 18 miles away, the report said. One river sample in the area had 190 times the pollution levels allowed under World Health Organization guidelines.

This article is from 2002, but the numbers in there ($1.50 a day, etc.) are simply unbelievable.