Thursday | 16 January 2025 | Reg No- 06
বাংলা
   
Thursday | 16 January 2025 | Epaper

E-waste management, its effects on health and environment

Published : Thursday, 8 July, 2021 at 12:00 AM  Count : 1499
Md Zillur Rahaman
Currently, the use of electrical and electronic devices in Bangladesh is growing at an alarming rate. But our awareness about the amount of waste and proper management of these wastes is very limited. With the economic growth and purchasing power of this densely populated country, e-waste is becoming a major threat not only increasing health risks, but also environmental pollution. Hence, proper plans are needed to address the issue.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released a global report on e-waste dumping and its impact on child health on 15 June 2021, which called for effective and mandatory protection of children from e-waste. The agency says the health of millions of children, adolescents and pregnant mothers worldwide is being harmed by the informal processing of e-waste. Effective and mandatory measures are urgently needed to protect them.

Electronic waste or e-waste refers to abandoned electrical or electronic device or discarded equipment, such as refrigerators, cameras, microwaves, laundry and drying equipment, televisions, computers, mobile phones, labs, etc. Irregular management and processing of electronic waste in developing countries can have adverse effects on human health and lead to environmental pollution. These devices contain many harmful substances for human health and the natural environment. Metal and chemical elements like lead, mercury, cadmium, beryllium, lead oxide etc are deadly to human nervous system, liver, kidneys, heart, lungs, brain, skin etc.

These e-wastes contain chemicals like lead, silicon, tin, cadmium, mercury, zinc, chromium, nitrous oxide etc and these chemicals are contaminating the soil and water. These wasted are responsible for reduction of soil's fertility, creating waterlogging in the city and in many ways. The toxic elements are entering the human body and creating risk of various diseases. Pregnant women and children in particular are at higher risk. E-waste lead causes severe damage to the nervous system of the newborn baby. As children get older, they also develop complications of major diseases such as lung, respiratory, thyroid complications, cancer and heart disease. Therefore, proper management of e-waste is very important.

There is no specific data on how much e-waste is recycled, destroyed and mixed in environment in Bangladesh every year. However, the Department of Environment prepared a report in 2018 and said that 4 lakh tons of electrical and electronic waste was deposited in the country that year and of this, only 3 per cent is used in the recycling industry and the remaining 97 percent of the seats are in dumping station. It further said that e-waste is increasing at a rate of 20 percent every year in the country and by 2035 this e-waste will stand at 4.6 million tonnes per annum.

Discussions on the impact of health risks and environmental pollution of e-waste began three decades ago when the use and proliferation of computers, electronics products and mobile phones initiated. But the Department of Environment has recently published a gazette of e-waste policy on June 10, 2021 under the Bangladesh Environmental Protection Act 1995 titled 'Risk Waste (E-Waste) Management'. The amount of e-waste in Bangladesh is already increasing at an alarming rate. Most of the old equipment is not recycled as there is no government initiative.

On the contrary, it harms the environment and health in many ways. The Department of Environment's regulations do not specify what should be done to reduce the risk of e-waste. E-waste is a major concern not only in Bangladesh but all over the world as it is increasing health risks on the one hand and polluting the environment on the other hand. According to the Global E-Waste Statistics Partnership (GESP), a global alliance working on e-waste, e-waste grows at a rate of 21 per cent every five years and only in 2019, 5,360 crore kg of e-waste was deposited all over the world. Only 17.4% of the total e-waste generated that year had been recycled and e-waste is accumulating more in low-income and middle-income countries.

In 2014, the United Nations University in Japan published a report stating that more than 40 million tons of electronic waste is generated in the world every year. The United States and the China are the only two countries that produce one-third of the world's e-waste. According to research, operated in 12 countries, the amount of e-waste in these five years was 12.30 million tons, and among these, the situation in China is dire.

At this time, the amount of e-waste has more than doubled to 6.68 million tons, which is said to be of concern for the whole of Asia. These e-wastes contain many economically important metals and other elements those can be recycled. The total value of iron, copper, gold, silver, aluminium, palladium and other recyclable materials is more than US$ 52 billion but that requires proper management and policies.

According to the WHO, 12.9 million women in the world are employed in the informal waste sector. All these women and their unborn children are at risk of being harmed by toxic e-waste. In addition, a large portion of at least 18 million children and adolescents are under the age of five, who are actively involved in the informal industry. Parents often allow children to play with and reuse e-waste, the agency said, children in the house use these as toys. E-waste contains high levels of toxic chemicals, especially mercury and lead. These harmful substances enter the baby's body easily and reduce the ability of children to develop intelligence.

The first step in reducing new health risks is to measure e-waste generation; then to set up permanent warehousing and recycling factories for these. Initiatives should also be taken to increase public awareness. The experiences of India, China and other countries could be useful in this regard to arrange and supervise the policies and regulations related to production, import, marketing, use and e-waste management of electronic equipment.

In this country of 160 million people, about 130 million people have mobile phones. The use of other electronic technologies is also growing very fast. About 30 per cent of these are turning into e-waste every year. So, we don't have a chance to waste time in this regard. Hopefully, various organizations are slowly trying to manage e-wastes. Various retailers are also collecting used old materials and arranging for recycling. We also need to raise awareness among people about health risks and environmental pollution.
The writer is a banker and
freelance columnist





LATEST NEWS
MOST READ
Also read
Banning outdoor New Year parties
BAC in higher education in Bangladesh
It's time to end the bloodshed in Yemen
Plastic waste threatens environment and biodiversity
Fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory export control is an important guarantee for globalization
Rapists still having a field day in Bangladesh
Int’l cooperation with BRI
Olaf Scholz: Agenda of Germany’s new leader
Editor : Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury
Published by the Editor on behalf of the Observer Ltd. from Globe Printers, 24/A, New Eskaton Road, Ramna, Dhaka.
Editorial, News and Commercial Offices : Aziz Bhaban (2nd floor), 93, Motijheel C/A, Dhaka-1000.
Phone: PABX- 41053001-06; Online: 41053014; Advertisement: 41053012.
E-mail: district@dailyobserverbd.com, news©dailyobserverbd.com, advertisement©dailyobserverbd.com, For Online Edition: mailobserverbd©gmail.com
🔝
close