During our zeal to recapture manufacturing like Apple iPhone and solar panel construction during the last four years, something obvious was ignored; the environmental hazards were never going to be acceptable in the USA. The rich people who can afford the latest technology turn a blind eye to non-union wages, slave labor and environmental impact as long as it is happening in th developing world.


Over the course of a year, researchers collected air samples from two rooftops in two areas in China. They found that living near an e-waste recycling site elevated risks of lung cancer. 

One was in a rural village in the southern province of Guangdong less than a mile from an active e-waste burning site and not surrounded by any industry. The other was Guangzhou, a city heavily polluted by industry, vehicles and power plants but not e-waste. The scholars concluded that those living in the e-waste village are 1.6 times more likely to develop cancer from inhalation than their urban-dwelling peers.

"In the village, people were recycling waste in their yards and homes, using utensils and pots to melt down circuit boards and reclaim metals," said Staci Simonich, co-author of the study and a professor of environmental and molecular toxicology at Oregon State University. "There was likely exposure through breathing, skin and food – including an intimate connection between e-waste and the growing of vegetables, raising of chickens and catching of fish."



Published in Environmental Science and Technology