China not fighting off e-waste nightmare

Source: AP

China not fighting off e-waste nightmare

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 14 minutes ago



GUIYU, China - The air smells acrid from the squat gas burners that sit outside homes, melting wires to recover copper and cooking computer motherboards to release gold. Migrant workers in filthy clothes smash picture tubes by hand to recover glass and electronic parts, releasing as much as 6.5 pounds of lead dust.


For five years, environmentalists and the media have highlighted the danger to Chinese workers who dismantle much of the world's junked electronics. Yet a visit to this southeastern Chinese town regarded as the heartland of "e-waste" disposal shows little has improved. In fact, the problem is growing worse because of China's own contribution.

China now produces more than 1 million tons of e-waste each year, said Jamie Choi, a toxics campaigner with Greenpeace China in Beijing. That adds up to roughly 5 million television sets, 4 million fridges, 5 million washing machines, 10 million mobile phones and 5 million personal computers, according to Choi.

...........This ugly business is driven by pure economics. For the West, where safety rules drive up the cost of disposal, it's as much as 10 times cheaper to export the waste to developing countries. In China, poor migrants from the countryside willingly endure the health risks to earn a few yuan, exploited by profit-hungry entrepreneurs


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071119/ap_on_re_as/china_toxic_electronics;_ylt=AkNaBsAdI9_MM6u7uC6XU.Ws0NUE

Just the other day, there was an article in my local newspaper regarding the "Blade Runner: Final Cut" release of the classic half-cult film. The interesting part was, the article went out of its way to point out that the present day Times Square, absent the Japanese text, is very nearly identical to that of the Times Square shown in the original film- almost to the point of the film being prescient.

It's been a long, long time since I saw that movie. Maybe I should revisit it sometime soon...

puts most if not all the current sci-fi movies to shame....can`t wait to see it....my brother in law just got a 50+inch lcd

a couple of weeks ago....really fucking nasty place to live.

than fascism.