000 03469pam a22003134a 4500
001 64084235
003 DLC
005 20201222060748.0
008 060210s2006 dcu b 001 0 eng
010 _a2006004549
020 _a1559635541 (cloth : alk. paper)
020 _a9781559635547
040 _aDLC
_cDLC
_dBAKER
_dC#P
_dNhCcYBP
042 _apcc
050 0 0 _aTD799.85
_b.G76 2006
082 0 0 _a363.72/87
_222
100 1 _aGrossman, Elizabeth,
_d1957-
_934373
245 1 0 _aHigh tech trash :
_bdigital devices, hidden toxics, and human health /
_cElizabeth Grossman
260 _aWashington :
_bIsland Press/Shearwater Books,
_cc2006
300 _axiv, 334 p. ;
_c24 cm
504 _aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 307-322) and index
505 0 _aThe underside of high tech -- Raw materials : where bits, bytes, and the earth's crust coincide -- Producing high tech : the environmental impact -- High-tech manufacture and human health -- Flame retardants : a tale of toxics -- When high tech electronics become trash -- Not in our backyard : exporting electronic waste -- The politics of recycling -- A land ethic for the digital age -- Appendix. How to recycle a computer, cell phone, TV, or other digital devices
520 _a(Publishers Description) "The Digital Age was expected to usher in an era of clean production, an alternative to smokestack industries and their pollutants. But as environmental journalist Elizabeth Grossman reveals in this penetrating analysis of high tech manufacture and disposal, digital may be sleek, but it's anything but clean. Deep within every electronic device lie toxic materials that make up the bits and bytes, a complex thicket of lead, mercury, cadmium, plastics, and a host of other often harmful ingredients. High Tech Trash is a wake-up call to the importance of the e-waste issue and the health hazards involved. Americans alone own more than two billion pieces of high tech electronics and discard five to seven million tons each year. As a result, electronic waste already makes up more than two-thirds of the heavy metals and 40 percent of the lead found in our landfills. But the problem goes far beyond American shores, most tragically to the cities in China and India where shiploads of discarded electronics arrive daily. There, they are recycled picked apart by hand, exposing thousands of workers and community residents to toxics. As Grossman notes, This is a story in which we all play a part, whether we know it or not. If you sit at a desk in an office, talk to friends on your cell phone, watch television, listen to music on headphones, are a child in Guangdong, or a native of the Arctic, you are part of this story. The answers lie in changing how we design, manufacture, and dispose of high tech electronics. Europe has led the way in regulating materials used in electronic devices and in e-waste recycling. But in the United States many have yet to recognize the persistent human health and environmental effects of the toxics in high tech devices. If Silent Spring brought national attention to the dangers of DDT and other pesticides, High Tech Trash could do the same for a new generation of technology's products
650 0 _aElectronic waste
_934374
650 0 _aElectronic apparatus and appliances
_xEnvironmental aspects
_934375
650 0 _aElectronic apparatus and appliances
_xHealth aspects
_934376
650 0 _aProduct life cycle
_934377
942 _2ddc
_cBK
999 _c121487
_d121487