Title: Electronic waste in Guiyu - Wikipedia
Headings: Electronic waste in Guiyu
Electronic waste in Guiyu
Contents
Health impacts
Economic rationale
Media coverage
Cleanup efforts
See also
References
External links

Content: Similarly, Agbogbloshie, in Ghana, is another example how thousands of tons of electronic waste from Europe is dumped in developing countries. Contents
1 Health impacts
2 Economic rationale
3 Media coverage
4 Cleanup efforts
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
Health impacts
Once a rice village, the pollution has made Guiyu unable to produce crops for food and the water of the river is undrinkable. Many of the primitive recycling operations in Guiyu are toxic and dangerous to workers' health with 80% of children suffering from lead poisoning. Above-average miscarriage rates are also reported in the region. Workers use their bare hands to crack open electronics to strip away any parts that can be reused—including chips and valuable metals, such as gold, silver, etc. Workers also "cook" circuit boards to remove chips and solders, burn wires and other plastics to liberate metals such as copper; use highly corrosive and dangerous acid baths along the riverbanks to extract gold from the microchips; and sweep printer toner out of cartridges. Children are exposed to the dioxin -laden ash as the smoke billows around Guiyu, and finally settles on the area. The soil surrounding these factories has been saturated with lead, chromium, tin, and other heavy metals.