1. Health Care Without Harm & The Computer Take Back Campaign
Environmentally Preferable Practices for Electronics: Procurement to End-of-Life
Health Care Without Harm
&
The Computer Take Back Campaign
Catholic Healthcare Association Teleconference Training
September 8, 2004
Mamta Khanna

2. The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting public health from exposures to toxic chemicals.
Health Care Without Harm’s (HCWH) mission is to transform the health care industry worldwide, without compromising patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment.
The goal of the Computer Take Back Campaign (CTBC) is to protect the health and well being of electronics users, workers, and the communities where electronics are produced and discarded.

3. CEH, HCWH & CTBC With a wide range of constituents
Committed to environmental and social justice
Promote the phase out of Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxicants (Mercury, Dioxins, Brominated Flame Retardants) and other hazardous chemicals
Minimize the amount and toxicity of all waste generated
Promote the use of safer materials and practices

4. Electronics in Healthcare
Healthcare depends on electronic products greatly for products as diverse as:
IT, medical diagnostic electronic equipment (EKG monitors), consumer electronic products (TVs, cell phones, etc) and more…
Short life spans of products

5. In Silicon Valley, the birthplace of high tech,
What’s the problem?
High Tech Impact on the Environment
In Silicon Valley, the birthplace of high tech,
24 of the 29 sites
listed on the National Priorities List (Superfund Sites) for clean up of contaminated soil and water were caused by high-tech companies.
“Printed circuit boards contain heavy metals such as antimony, silver, chromium, zinc, lead, tin and copper.
According to some estimates, there is hardly any other product for which the sum of the environmental impacts of raw material, extraction, industrial, refining and production, use and disposal is so extensive as for printed circuit boards.”
-CARE conference, Vienna 1994

6. Materials of Concern in Manufacturing of Electronics Products
Some examples…
chlorinated plastics in cable wiring
brominated flame retardants in PCBs
heavy metals (lead and cadmium) in CRTs
mercury in Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) or flat panel monitors.
More information:

7. High Tech Impact on Health
Materials found in electronic products are recognized to be:
teratogenic = linked to birth defects
persistent = not easily excreted from the body
bioaccumulative = magnifies up the food chain
carcinogenic = cancer causing
reproductive toxin = linked to birth defects
endocrine disruptor = disrupts the hormonal system
mutagenic = causes mutations in cells
Courtesy CAFOD² 2:

8. Worker Safety Patient Safety Community Health
Product Lifecycle
DISPOSAL
Landfill and incineration: illegal
Recycling facilities not regulated
Evidence of BFRs in e-waste recycling workers
Use of prison labor
Export of hazardous materials to developing nations
MANUFACTURE
Toxic chemical use: mercury, lead, chromium, cadmium, brominated flame retardants and PVC: priority list.
Occupational health exposures to hazardous chemicals
Intense resource use
USE
Increased understanding of consumer exposures to Brominated Flame Retardants.
Worker Safety Patient Safety Community Health

9. Health Impacts X Volume
300 Million Obsolete Computers by 2004
Plastic             4 billion lbs.
Lead        1 billion lbs.
Cadmium    2 million lbs.
Chromium million lbs.
Mercury ,000 lbs.

10. Domestic Landfilling: Health Impacts
Case Study of Mercury and Exposure During Disposal
Lighting in flat panel displays is a source of mercury.  Mercury is a well-documented neurotoxin.  Mercury contamination occurs during the transfer, landfilling, and incineration of solid waste
Mercury emissions found at landfills (working face and in gas extraction systems).
Landfills convert part of the mercury in products from the metallic form to the more toxic methyl form and the highly toxic dimethyl form and are a major source of these emissions
Mercury from landfills can re-enter the environment when the leachate is treated either on-site or at wastewater treatment plants
Mercury is only one of several toxins used in the manufacture of electronic products.
For more information:

11. Health and Environmental Impacts of Improper Disposal
Domestic Recycling
Findings in Recycling Workers
The levels of BFRs found at electronics dismantling plants were several orders of magnitude higher than in other environments
Recycling workers are being highly exposed to PBDE and TBBPA (mainly used in printed circuit boards)

12. Prison Labor: Unfair practices
Disassembly of electronic products is dangerous to the health of prisoners
Racial minorities and low-income individuals comprise about 70 percent of all federal prisoners (African Americans and Latino)
Do not receive full protections, rights and remedies
Undercuts commercial high-end recycling
Prison Reform and Advocacy Center: and Prison Activist Resource Center:
USEPA Civil Rights Environmental Justice Order

13. Exporting Harm: International Dumping of E-Waste
Increasing evidence of e-waste dumping in the guise of recycling.
Developing countries and communities impacted by:
Lower wages
Weaker environmental laws
Weak infrastructure to handle
Environmental exposures to highly toxic chemicals
December Copyright Basel Action Network.

14. Exporting Harm (2)
“Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia” by Basel Action Network, 2002.
“E-waste in Chennai: Time is running out” (2004) and “Scrapping the Hi-tech Myth: Computer Waste in India” (2003), both reports by Toxics Link, India.
Guiyu, China: Woman about to smash a cathode ray tube from a computer monitor in order to remove copper.
December Photographs Copyright Basel Action Network.

15. Early Warnings of User Exposures to BFRs
Some studies have also shown exposures to computer technicians and office workers
Analysis and toxicology of BFRs with emphasis on PBDEs, by Pettersson and Karlsson, Orebro University, Sweden
Brominated Flame Retardants in Dust on Computers:

16. Why Healthcare should Care?
Hippocratic oath “First Do No Harm”
Proactively protect public health
Leadership in community
Concern with environmental compliance (e-waste is hazardous waste)
Concern with privacy protection (HIPAA)
Huge dependence on electronics in medical diagnostics and IT
Largely centralized procurement
Large turn-over of equipment: $$ to buy, store, dispose
Effective “asset disposition” can save money and resources
High $$ amount of purchase = Manufacturers will listen

17. Total Cost of Ownership: A New Lens for Electronic Waste Management
PURCHASE PRICE + COST OF STORING, TRANSPORTING AND DISPOSING AS HAZARDOUS WASTE + RISK/LIABILITY ASSESSMENT
Do your homework before contract negotiation

18. Environmentally Preferable Procurement of IT Equipment: Basic Principles
End-of-Life Management
Upgradeability
Design for the Environment and Public Health
Manufacturing
Energy Efficiency

19. Basic Principles of EPP for IT
END OF LIFE MANAGEMENT:
Manufacturers provide or ensure the following:
A) Take-back and management services
Why Take-Backs?
- Ensure that manufacturers help alleviate disposal costs
- Encourage design of less toxic alternative products
- Innovation!
B) Info-labels with take-back information
C) Recycling vendors sign Electronic Recycler’s Pledge of Stewardship:
Pledge to meet strict standards for managing e-waste
D) Certification that hazardous waste is not exported to developing countries
E) Documentation on processes for end-of-life management
F) Certification & documentation of recycling practices

20. Basic Principles for EPP (Cont…)
1) END OF LIFE MANAGEMENT (CONTD.):
G) Protections for recycling workers from hazardous exposures.
- Enable workers to take actions to protect their own health. This excludes prison workers.
H) Recycling or reuse of old equipment
-Minimum, demonstrate (by posting to company website) that more than half of old equipment will be recycled or reused by 2006¹
1: As per the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive passed by the EU Jan has good information.

21. Basic Principles for EPP (Cont…)
2) UPGRADEABILITY:
Manufacturers provide guarantees and options to upgrade product:
Memory, speed, capacity of machines, ability to expand networks and equipment use without replacing existing equipment.
Why?
Extends life of equipment
Holds down costs over time
Conserves resources used in manufacture and disposal

22. Basic Principles for EPP (Cont…)
3) DESIGN FOR THE ENVIRONMENT & PUBLIC HEALTH
Manufacturers to
A) Disclose toxic materials contained in the product on the company website
i) Right to know of consumer to make informed choices
ii) Gives opportunity for companies to compete positively
Yesterday HP, today Dell, tomorrow Sony?
B) Demonstrate plans and timelines to eliminate or minimize toxic and hazardous constituents
C) Eliminate the following Priority list:
i) Lead
ii) Cadmium
iii) Mercury
iv) Hexavalent Chromium
v) Brominated Flame Retardants
vi) Chlorinated Plastics
WHY?
Most toxic, persist in the environment and our bodies and accumulate up the food chain

23. Basic Principles for EPP (Cont…)
3) DESIGN FOR THE ENVIRONMENT & PUBLIC HEALTH (CONT…)
Closing the loop:
Design and manufacture have an impact
on end-of-life disposal options:
- Costs to society
- Environmental (our air, water and soil)
- Public health (increased cancers, reproductive harm)

24. Basic Principles for EPP (Cont…)
4) MANUFACTURING
Our goal: Protect occupational health and safety (OHS) of employees in manufacturing
Manufacturers to provide documentation:
i) Corporate policy on OHS
ii) Results of routine industrial monitoring
iii) Results of medical monitoring of employees globally (while protecting privacy)
iv) Occupational Safety & Health Administration Injury report Log 300

25. Basic Principles for EPP (Cont…)
5) ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Manufacturers to meet Energy Star requirements

26. Disposal: End of Life Management
Reduce
Reuse
Recycle
No Landfills
No Incineration

27. Choosing An Electronics Recycler
Asking the right questions from your recycler:
Have they signed the Electronic Recycler’s Pledge of True Stewardship¹?
What do they do to recycle? Reuse? Do they provide proof/ documentation?
Can they help with logistics of transportation/storage?
Do they offer data destruction? Methods? Proof/Documentation?
Labor source?
Regulatory compliance?
Sound, ethical business practices?
Involve local businesses, non-profits
Set criteria that meet your goals.
¹For more information:
Handout on choosing a recycler.
International Association of Electronics Recyclers
Electronics Recyclers Pledge of True Stewardship: The World's Most Rigorous Environmental and Social Justice Criteria for Recycling E-waste
As with many businesses, a recycler can be fraudulent (“sham recycling”), and can abuse your expectations and needs.

28. Is it waste or not: Doing the Analysis
Working or non-working?
Do not put in trash:
Regulated as hazardous waste. ILLEGAL
If working…
If not working…
Responsible
recycler or broker (who has signed Pledge of Stewardship) to take equipment to resell or refurbish.
Donate for reuse
Diagnose and repair
Donate to non-profit that has capacity for refurbishing
Ensure pieces and parts from refurbishing or repair are accounted for.
Regulated as hazardous waste.
Placing in trash is ILLEGAL
Potential CERCLA liability

29. Storage and Security Issues of E-waste
Resale & recycle value of stored equipment depreciates 6-10%/month.
3-year old equipment has > value
Data sanitization should be done upon retirement, before storage or surplus.
Total destruction for data security wastes equipment with value.
Not enough to delete hard drives, Department of Defense standards for Data Destruction
More info: [ or

30. Health Care Without Harm
Computer Take-Back Campaign

31. Mamta Khanna 510-594-9864 mamta@cehca.org www.cehca.org
Thank you!
Mamta Khanna