Discarded Electrical Items Pose a Health Threat, School of Public Health Study Finds

ALBANY, N.Y. (March 8, 2022) — A review from the Department of Environmental Health Sciences in collaboration with the World Health Organization shows that discarded electronics and electrical equipment pose health threats to children in African countries, where the materials are imported and dismantled under unsafe conditions.

Used and discarded electrical items, called “e-waste,” range from cell phones to refrigerators. After they are no longer in use in developed countries, including the United States, items are often transported to large sites in African countries where they are repurposed or discarded to landfills. The report on e-waste, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, summarizes the public health problem using peer-reviewed publications from the past 15 years.

“It’s so important to understand e-waste and how it impacts the health of communities,” says Tamba Lebbie, PhD student in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and lead author of the report. “Local communities are affected by contamination and climate change due to landfill waste, along with disease that spreads from pests attracted to landfills. On top of that, landfills are scavenged by people to collect valuable metals via heating, incubating in acids and other activities that may pose health risks. Toxic substances can be released during these processes, and the impact on children in particular can be significant since their systems are still developing.”

The report shows that e-waste contains over 1,000 harmful substances — either directly as a component, or released through the processing systems during informal recycling. Health effects are different based on the substances and the amount of exposure, but range from behavioral abnormalities in children to reduced lung function and cancer.

“Countries in West Africa are particularly vulnerable to the health effects of e-waste, especially when there are a lack of policies in place to regulate the landfills and to protect the local communities,” says Lebbie. “The Agbogbloshie dumpsite in Ghana is one of the largest in the world, and a lot of the 250,000 tons of e-waste that ends up there is burned to obtain metals. This leads to the contamination of air, soil, dust, water and human exposure to a wide variety of toxic substances.”

While African countries have made efforts to address these health concerns through regional interventions, national and international action and awareness is needed to help protect both people and the environment from hazardous substances due to e-waste.

“In addition to advocacy to incorporate stronger health protection measures into national waste management policies and electronics manufacturing, we also need more rigorous research to provide to governments and international conventions to show the clear dangers of e-waste exposure,” says Lebbie.

The full report, which also includes David Carpenter and PhD student Omosehin Moyebi as authors from the UAlbany School of Public Health, can be read online. Additional authors are World Health Organization personnel and leadership from World Health Organization Collaborating Centres in the United States and Australia.