Tools and Resources

• Buying Better Computers
• Recycling Programs
• Responsible Disposal
• Concerns about Flame Retardants
• Resolutions, Ordinances, Laws
• Links to Other Websites
• More News about Electronics

Buying Better Computers

Fact Sheets

• How to Buy Better Computers: Going Beyond EPEAT (pdf)

  A short background document that discusses the growing global problem of electronics and provides information on what institutional purchasers can do, explaining available tools such as the Electronics Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) and additional criteria to help you go Beyond EPEAT.

• Purchasing Guidelines for Environmentally Preferable Computers (pdf format) or (doc format)

  Guidelines for addressing the environmental and public health threats of electronic products through purchasing preferences and manufacturers' design. Prepared by Health Care Without Harm, Hospitals for a Healthy Environment, and the Electronics Takeback Campaign.

Power Points

• Health Concerns and Electronics: Why Healthcare Should Care (ppt)

  Presentation given by Ted Smith, Executive Director, Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition at Cleanmed 2004 about the environmental and social costs of the electronics industry and why healthcare should care.

• Catholic Healthcare West and Electronics Procurement (ppt)

  Presentation given by Mary Ellen Leciejewski, OP, Ecology Coordinator for Catholic Healthcare West hospitals, at Cleanmed 2004 about the steps they are taking to embed environmental and social criteria in to their hospitals' electronic procurement contracts.

• Greening Electronics Purchasing Decisions (ppt)

  Presentation given by Anne Peters, President Gracestone, Inc., at Cleanmed 2004 on how to incorporate environmental and social concerns in bids for electronic products.

• Environmentally Preferable Procurement for Electronics (ppt)

  Presentation on the issues related to electronics procurement and environmental responsibility.

• Environmentally Preferable Practices for Electronics: Procurement to End-of-Life (ppt)

Recycling Programs

Choose a vendor who has signed the
Electronic Recycler's Pledge of True Stewardship

Power Point

End-of-Life and Takeback Programs

• Equipment End-of-Life Management Program Summary Form (pdf format or doc format)
• Packaging Takeback Program Summary (pdf format or doc format)

  These supplemental program summary forms provide a way for institutional purchasers to compile and compare information about different vendors' equipment end-of-life management and packaging takeback programs, respectively, to help determine which services purchasers might want to include in their contracts.

Responsible Disposal

Report

Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia (pdf)

Video Documentaries

• "Exporting Harm" (Video Documentary)

  This 23 minute film documents the real consequences of exporting e-waste to developing countries for "recycling," by following a trail of toxic e-waste destined for China.

  Produced by the Basel Action Network (BAN) and Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, "Exporting Harm" can be ordered from BAN's website. The official trailer is below.

  
   
   
• "Digital Dump" (Video Documentary)

  This 22 minute film continues to expose the harmful, escalating global trade in toxic, obsolete, discarded electronics that was uncovered in "Exporting Harm," by following a trail of hazardous e-waste to Lagos, Nigeria.

  Produced by the Basel Action Network (BAN) and Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, "Digital Dump" can be ordered from BAN's website. The official trailer is below.

  
   

Concerns about Flame Retardants

Reports

• Brominated Flame Retardants: Rising Levels of Concern (pdf)

  This June 2005 report summarizes the latest scientific research on halogenated brominated flame retardants, including their toxicity, persistence, and presence in humans and wildlife.

• Brominated Flame Retardants in Dust on Computers: The Case for Safer Chemicals and Better Computer Design (pdf)

  In the first nationwide tests for brominated flame retardants in dust swiped from computers, the Computer Take-Back Campaign (CTBC) and Clean Production Action (CPA) found these neurotoxic chemicals on every computer sampled. The highest levels found were a form of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) called deca-BDE- one of the most widely used fire retardant chemicals in the electronics industry.

• DecaBDE: An Investigation of Non-Halogen Substitutes in Electronic Enclosure and Textile Applications (pdf)

  This April 2005 report by the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production examines safer alternatives to decaBDE, a flame retardant used in electronics.

Fact Sheets

• Flame Retardants: Alarming Increases in Humans and the Environment (pdf)
• What Health Care Purchasers Can Do to Reduce Flame Retardants (pdf)

Resolutions, Ordinances, Laws

• American Medical Association Resolution (pdf)

  This AMA resolution on the toxicity of computers and electronics waste was recommended for adoption by AMA's House of Delegates at their 2003 Annual Meeting.

• California Medical Association Resolution (pdf)

  This resolution on the toxicity of computers and electronics waste was adopted by the CMA's House of Delegates on March 24, 2003.

Links to Other Websites

• Join Practice Greenhealth
  Valuable information and resources for 'greener' hospital facilities. Topics include: eliminating mercury use, environmentally preferable purchasing, waste reduction and green design in building facilities.
• Electronics TakeBack Coalition
  The goal of the Electronics TakeBack Coalition (formerly Computer TakeBack Campaign) is to protect the health and well-being of electronic users, workers, and the communities where electronics are produced and discarded by requiring consumer electronics manufacturers and brand owners to take full responsibility for the life cycle of their products, through effective public policy requirements or enforceable agreements.
• Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition
  Resources, technical documents, slide presentations, report cards, and directories on computer recycling, sustainable water programs, and international efforts to reduce the impacts of the electronic industry on the environment and public health.
• Basel Action Network (BAN)
  The Basel Action Network (BAN) works to prevent the globalization of the toxic waste crisis. BAN works to prevent trade in toxic waste exported from rich to poorer countries, and to promote global environmental justice and a toxics-free world.

More News about Electronics

• Hazardous Chemicals found in Household Dust
  Toxic chemicals leach from electronics, shower curtains, vinyl flooring and other common household products, says a new report. See the press release and report. (pdf)

• Health Leaders e-zine on green technologies and article about purchasing healthier electronics

• E-Waste Recycling Program Hits Stride.
  San Jose Mercury News article on California's pioneering electronic-waste recycling law, 7/05.

• Evidence mounts about problematic flame retardants. Read the new BFR Report (pdf) and fact sheet (pdf). Read an open letter by NGOs (pdf) urging EU ministers to keep the ban on deca-BDE in electronics. Find out What Health Care Purchasers Can Do to Reduce Flame Retardants (pdf)

• Victory! Health and environmental groups successfully pressured the EU Commission to maintain the ban on flame retardant DecaBDE in electronics. Read more about the outcome of the vote, and the new report (pdf) on substitutes for decaBDE.

If discarded as a waste, mercury will eventually make its way into the environment where organisms living in rivers, lakes, or moist earth transform it into highly toxic organic mercury. This type of mercury, which affects nerves and brains at extraordinary low levels, persists and accumulates in animals, fish and the global environment.

Health care plays an important role as one source of mercury. For instance, the United Nations Environment Programme lists various health care-related products and activities as "important sources of anthropogenic releases" of mercury. These include fluorescent lamps, manometers, thermometers and other instruments; dental amalgam fillings; waste treatment and incineration of products containing mercury; landfills; and cremation.

Other recognized sources of mercury in the environment include coal-fired power plant emissions and mercury cell chlor-alkali plants, along with artisanal and industrial gold mining.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNEP have both identified the adverse effects of mercury pollution as a serious global environmental and human health problem. The UNEP Governing Council, representing all UN represented countries, has targeted reducing methyl mercury accumulation in the global environment as a major global priority and in February 2009 agreed to launch negotiations for an international Legally Binding Instrument to control mercury trade.

WHO and Health Care Without Harm have launched a Global Partnership to virtually eliminate mercury in health care in one decade.