Mention to most people that old computers from North America are sent to countries like China, Africa or Pakistan, and a mental picture is conjured up of a missionary or aid worker stooped over the shoulder of a foreign national teaching them the finer points of modern technology. But that is rarely the truth.

Obsolete technology, like computers, monitors, printers and keyboards sent to the third world, end up being disassembled for their materials. In almost all cases, there are no safeguards in place to protect the environment or health of workers. As a result, whole areas of the third world have been decimated and are non-recoverable environmental disasters. Those who disassemble and process e-scrap material are daily exposed to levels of contaminants that can cause irreversible harm.

It’s becoming so grave a problem that countries like China have banned the importation of e-scrap in an effort to turn things around. But it may not be enough. Those who manufacture and use technology in the United States and Canada must take an ethically responsible position to ensure that stewardship of such equipment goes beyond current possession; they must also ensure its safe disposal.

Woman about to smash a cathode ray tube from a computer monitor in order to remove the copper laden yoke at the end of the funnel. The glass is laden with lead but the biggest hazard from this is the inhalation of the highly toxic phosphor dust coating inside. Monitor glass is later dumped in irrigation canals and along the river where it leaches lead into the groundwater.

Guiyu, China. December 2001. Copyright Basel Action Network. Used by Permission.