Managing e-waste “has become not just important, it has become absolutely urgent.” This statement was made by UNEP Executive Director, Achim Steiner not too long ago based on the fact that electronic waste (e-waste) is filled with a veritable cocktail of toxic materials. This enormous waste stream contain billions of pounds of hazardous materials, including lead, mercury, beryllium, cadmium, brominates (flame-retardants), and more than 1,000 different toxic substances harmful to human beings and the environment if not disposed of properly.

Old electronics are often lumped into municipal waste and then burnt, releasing toxic and carcinogenic substances into the air. Chemicals such as beryllium, found in computer motherboards, and cadmium, used in chip resistors and semiconductors, are poisonous and could lead to cancer. Chromium in floppy disks, lead in batteries and computer monitors, and mercury in alkaline batteries pose severe health risks. An average 15-inch PC or TV monitor contains as much as five pounds of lead; many old laptop batteries include cadmium, one of the most toxic chemicals known.

Generally, experts agree that exposure to toxic chemicals from e-waste - including lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium and polybrominated biphenyls - can damage the brain and nervous system, affect the kidneys and liver, and cause birth defects.

Thrown into landfills, these substances leak and can eventually pollute groundwater. Studies by the Ministry of Environment in Nigeria suggest that basic components such as lead are being recovered and then smelted in people’s back yards, which poses a huge risk of lead poisoning.  Studies have also indicated “excess heavy metals in the soil, as well as in plants and people who eat vegetables.” And research at Nigeria’s University of Ibadan warned of a “chemical time bomb scenario,” with children highly susceptible to toxic substances which could lead to long-term cancers affecting the lungs and all parts of the body.  In an article ‘How Europe’s discarded computers are poisoning Africa’s kids,’ Clemens Höges as far back as 2009 noted that the toxic elements in the waste are slowly poisoning them.

According to a white paper by techturn, a company in the forefront of clean tech recycling, while technology to safely refurbish or recycle used electronics is available in the developed countries,  the majority of e-waste ends up in developing countries where it is often disposed of in a manner that damages human health and the environment. Why, it costs about €3.50 ($5.30/N848.00) to properly dispose of an old Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitor in Germany but costs only about €1.50 (N240.00) to stick it on a container ship to Nigeria or Ghana.

Current electronic waste management contributes to increasing levels of toxic chemicals building up in our bodies. The chemical body burden of the human population has been steadily increasing. Recent studies show that each of us now carries an average of 150 chemicals in our body, residues of our lifestyle.

It is therefore bewildering to know that recently, a hazardous waste in the form of Used Electronic Electrical Equipment found an entry into the Tin Can Island Container Terminal, Lagos from Europe through a ship named MV Marivia.

International Institute of Risk and Safety Management (IIRSM) Nigeria Region calls on all well meaning Nigerians to condemned this act  and recommend that necessary Acts/laws/conventions be invoked to ensure that those behind this deadly act are brought to book.

Western countries must immediately stop using Africa as a landfill for useless electronics.  While IIRSM Nigeria Region commends NESREA for the fight against this ‘toxic legacy’ that has rapidly developed in our society, it enjoins all (industry, government, environmental groups, and citizens) to immediately collaborate with NESREA to solve the problems of e-waste, e-scrap, e-surplus, e-junk, and e-discards in Nigeria.

Those in charge of the nation’s entry points must sit-up and do their part of it. It is our collective responsibility to stop the rising environmental damage and health problems due to these hazardous e-wastes.  Stopping the e-waste importation represents one vital step in the transition to a green economy.