E-Waste Revisited

In connection with Yanina's teaching day presentation (round 1) of E-Waste, I saw a great segment on 60 minutes last night. The segment was on this new concept of E-Waste in China. The focus is on an American recycling company that talks about the seriousness of shipping American waste to undeveloped countries. They actually traced a shipment from the American recycling company to Hong Kong, and inevitably to a dump-site filled with acres upon acres of wasted computer and television cathode-ray tubes (CRT's) which are the most toxic is addition to the dozens of toxins within computer towers and hard drives.
The dump-sites were actually guarded by gangs, who upon discovery of the reporters attacked and mugged the reporters stealing soil samples and camera equipment. The diseases and repercussions of these toxins being released on the community were widespread and awful. It's very interesting how a month ago, no-one new relatively anything about E-Waste, and now it is of great national concern. It will be very interesting to see the role that the media will play now that this concern has entered the mainstream media cycle.

Here's the link to the video from 60 minutes:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/06/60minutes/main4579229.shtml