Toxic cellphones may be dumped in India

Environmentalists better watch out! Over 130 million cellphones or potential time bombs as they are being called by experts because of the toxic materials they contain, will be discarded by the Americans by next year and they would most probably be heading towards Indian shores to be dumped here.

India is one of the fastest growing mobile telephone markets in the world, with 14.17 million users till May last year. The market is rising by over 100 per cent every year, thus making it one of the most lucrative places for global players and cellphone providers, says Ravi Agarwal, director, Toxics Link, a non-governmental organisation.

"The fact, combined with rapid obsolesce due to malfunction or rapid development of new features will create very significant volumes of waste," says Agarwal, noting, "There is a constant threat looming over India as e-waste like this is always headed towards developing countries like India, Pakistan and China."

The alarm bells started ringing for mobile phones when two independent studies funded by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the State of California in their report last month said that obsolete or non-working mobile phones qualify as hazardous waste even with their batteries removed.
             
The toxicity is due to the use of the toxic metal lead in the phones and their propensity to leach the lead content when deposited in a municipal landfill, the study said.

"Lead, brominated flame-retardants, beryllium, hexavalent chromium, arsenic, calcium and antimony are found in mobile phone parts, which are highly toxic," says Agarwal.

Movements of hazardous wastes of all kinds is meant to be defined, and controlled or prohibited under the terms of Basel Convention - an international treaty under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme.

However, the problem for India is arising as it has not ratified the ban, says Agarwal, noting: "It is high time for the Indian government to ratify the Basel Convention and the ban and implement the law on hazardous waste materials."

"Mobile phones that have us addicted by their convenience while in hand, are, once discarded, soon transformed into a very inconvenient societal burden of poison and disease," says Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network, which investigated the emerging toxicity data.

The implications for exportation of these old mobile phones to developing countries for recycling or re-use equate to an immediate or delayed toxic time bomb, he says.

According to the study, the average composition of cellphones tested contain 45 per cent plastics, 40 per cent printed wiring (or circuit) board, 4 per cent liquid crystal display and 8 per cent metals. Cellphone batteries too contain toxic elements.

Batteries have toxic constituents such as cadmium and brominated flame retardants. Total environmental impact from cellphone batteries not only depends on a battery's material composition but is also a function of the length of time cellphones are used before they are discarded, the report says.

"Fortunately the habits are a strong saving grace as the Indian mobile phone user generally refuses to junk an old instrument but passes it on to a new low-end user, helping the grey market thrive," Agarwal says.

India is a rather unique and, as usual, exasperating market for cellular telephonic instrument makers. It is worrisome for cellular telephone companies that Indians will not junk their mobiles, but pass them on to a new low-end user who will, in turn, junk them in the flea market from where these instruments will make way to the hinterland, he says.

On the other hand, it is common in the west, and even South-east Asia to find five or six retired instruments in every office-goers cabinet, he says, noting, "In the US alone, experts estimate that 130 million cellphones will be discarded by the year 2005, resulting in 65,000 tonnes of cellphone waste."

E-waste like this is always headed towards developing countries such as India, Pakistan and China. A report by Toxics Link recently found that 70 per cent of electronic waste collected in the recycling units in Delhi was actually exported or dumped by developed countries, he says.

The waste here is subjected to primitive and highly polluting recycling operations, which contaminate the community and impact health of workers.

"It is high time our government takes cognisance of the issue and check the illegal imports of e-waste," he adds.