ELECTRONIC WASTE AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS

M

an in his quest to manufacture #devices that can reduce the hectic burden of day-to-day activities has brought about technological intensification, overlooking the pollution caused by electronic peripherals and machinery waste; these species of equipment are outcome of scientific and technological achievement by man aiming to attain greater height in world civilization. 

The overall goal is to simplify and enhance human existence by adding quality value to our day after day life, it suffers no contention that with these equipment and facilities, the world has been reduced to a small village thus making it possible for people in all parts of the globe to communicate and transact their various businesses in real time.

 In truth, there are profoundly transformed by world view and link all who can afford them to the global super highway along with conspicuous partner consumption of the best the world has to offer. As civilization continues in it unstoppable movement, it must leave it by-product in it trail.

 As much as we have these electronic, electrical and mechanical equipment with us to enhance our daily living, we are also compel to take great care in a way we deploy them to serve our purposes; this is because some of the equipment carry with them some amount of dangerous chemicals such as: curium, lead, carbon amongst others, which requires limited exposure of human body to them owing to the substances they emit. For instance, cell phone which is a must have item in the hands of a large segment of the world’s population, emanate some amount of radio-active wave which ordinarily should not do harm to human health because it’s below the health threatening level; for safety sake, no cell phone user should go to sleep with the phone on his/her body or under the pillow while sleeping.

Moreover, even though the cell phone A.K.A handset, it is advisable to reduce the amount of time we held it closer to our body to avoid a long term effects on our health. Traveler’s issues are how we dispose of used electronic gadgets to avoid serious health and pollution hazards they post to our environment. This is because in proper handling and disposal of tired and worn-out or used electronic waste posed dangers not to the echo system alone but more so to human health. According to experts, the menace of toxic waste dump poses a great challenge to us because it’s a silent killer.

            Waste dumps of used electronic products such as batteries, computers, handsets, tires, generators, television sets, refrigerators amongst others can stock up huge radio-active waves which beneath the skin surface and blood vessels leading to various health challenges like: high blood pressure, cancer and cardio-vascular diseases.

Humans shouldn’t forget in a hurry the dumping of three thousand five hundred(3500) tones of toxic waste by the Italian cargo ship @ Koko Village in Delta State in 1988 and it aftermath on the resident of the village. What this potent is that, for both manufacturers of industrial and domestic goods as well as the consumers of the product the challenge of proper waste disposal is ever present, that is why policy makers at all level of government should have a deliberate electronic waste disposal policy in place to ensure that electronic waste are not mingled with everyday biodegradable waste.

It is true that most of the electronic products can be recycled, reused, resold and salvage the society with necessary technologies. We must not miss the point about the treat which improper handling of these used products poses to human health, especially developing society such as ours.