On Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:00:32 -0800, (Dave Platt)
wrote:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1913570/
This documents the effects of the electronic-waste recycling practices
in Guiyu, China.

Yep. Yet China's RoHS is even more restrictive that the EU. The EU
is modeling their new and expanded regulations on Chinas.
http://www.chinarohs.com

A high percentage of e-waste from the U.S. is
exported to locations in Asia for recycling, and much of this is done
via rather primitive methods such as those described in Guiyu.

Mexico is even worse. Find a concrete pad. Bulldoze a pile of ewaste
over the pad. Add diesel. Ignite. The lead and most useful metals
melt to the pad, where it's collected. Shove the slag out of the way
and repeat.

However, there's hope. The bottom fell out of the scrap metals market
last year mostly due to China deciding not to buy as much US scrap.
The children of China are safe. Now, all we have to do is figure out
what to do with the scrap ourselves.

Back in 2003, the results of a five-year study reported in the New
England Journal of Medicine seems to indicate that children can suffer
a measurable (and quite significant) decrease in their intellectual
capacity from blood-lead levels of 10 uG/dL or less.

I'm surprised they didn't study the effect of lead on the researchers.
"In our sample, most of the damage to intellectual functioning
occurs
at blood-lead concentrations that are below 10 mcg/dl," said
Canfield. The amount of impairment was also much greater than the
researchers had expected. "Given the relatively low exposure levels,
we were surprised to find that the IQ scores of children with
blood-lead levels of 10 mcg/dl were about seven points lower than
for children with lead levels of 1 mcg/dl," Canfield said.

Chuckle. That sounds like a repeat of a similar study done in the
1960's. I'll see if I can find the references (later). What they did
was compare the IQ scores of children that lived near a lead recycling
plant in Colorado(?) with those in a more pristine atmosphere. The
former were in a designated poverty area, while the latter were in a
more affluent location. The IQ test results were predictable. The
same data also showed an increased incidence of various diseases in
the former. Hopefully, this report is a bit more sane.

Incidentally, one of my friends is a biomedical researcher. She does
the numbers for many such research projects. I don't know if it's
really true, but many such studies cannot be funded unless the result
is known in advance. They can't afford to embarrass those that are
paying the bills.



--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558