Smartphones make Top Health Tech Hazards

[Geek-9pm]

This s a collection of stories from last year. So it is not current News, but you should want to follow the links and see what the fuss was.
(I have not used the quote thing. It is ugly.) t It should be obvious these are quotes.

Smartphones make Top Health Tech Hazards

Battery Case for Smartphone Recalled Due to Fire Hazard
The CPSC and Health Canada recently announced a voluntary recall of smartphone battery case due to an overheating risk when charging, posing a fire threat.
http://www.strquality.com/en-us/newsevents/Pages/Smartphone-Recall-Battery-Case.aspx

Lithium-Ion Battery Hazards
Oct. 7, 2012 R. Thomas Long, P.E., Michael Kahn, Ph. D., and Celina Mikolajczak, P.E.
http://magazine.sfpe.org/content/lithium-ion-battery-hazards

The Fire Protection Research Foundation (FPRF) completed an assessment of the hazards associated with Li-ion batteries related to storage of Li-ion batteries and fire protection; this article provides a brief overview of this work to-date.1 Before the global fire safety challenges associated with Li-ion batteries can be addressed, an understanding of Li-ion technology is useful ...

From an individual case:

 like to post an instance that occurred since back in March. On a Sunday morning, I plugged in the micro USB to a Nokia E7-00 I got since Oct. 2011 to start my routine e-mail checking. About 2minutes later when I touch the micro USB plu on the phone, it was boiling hot! Facing this abnormal temperature, I immediately unplug the mciro USB from the phone. Guess what! The micro USB cable socket and the socket on the phone start to burn! Inexperienced with such an emergency situation, I put out the fire with my own finger! (So, hospital I went, of course! Yet, the pain caused by the burn discouraged me from using any keyboard for 2 weeks!)

What happen next is the painful procedure dealing with the phone maker:
NoKIA. (by the way, sounds like: (NoCare))
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056726049

For more, search : Smart Phone Hazards

This is recent and you have to read it.:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/business/technology/130326/dirty-smartphones-ted-smith-toxins-gadgets

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

I heard cars are pretty dangerous too.

[Geek-9pm]

I heard cars are pretty dangerous too.

They regulate cars.
I used to live in Silicon Valley and I understand the issues there. San Jose is a beautiful plane to live. Sad to say, the water quality was compromised by the electronics industry.  The industry has been poorly regulated as to hazardous materials. Making Cell phones or  iPads is more that just Lithium Icon. A whole litter of metals are needed just to make a cute little gadget.

The problem still is with us. To date that are no statics as to how many people have been killed by a cell phones.  But the mining industry, world wide, continues to harm people. California now has laws to reduce the problem here, but globally people are being hurt with the cell phone industry.

Peale read the last link in my post above. Thank you.

[patio]

Geek this is absolutely terrible news...especially given the fact you stated that phones are replacing PC's...

Now what on Earth do we do ? ?

[Geek-9pm]

Geek this is absolutely terrible news...especially given the fact you stated that phones are replacing PC's...
Now what on Earth do we do ? ?

I do'no. Shall we live in caves? The more I got into this, the worst it gets.

Ted Smith is well-known as an environmentalist. His main target was the Santa Clara Valley. Here is a blurb about him:

Ted Smith , Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition
Founder
Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition
Purpose Prize Fellow 2006
Improving the environmental health and safety practices of the global electronics industry
Silicon Valley may be ground zero for innovation, but it was also a potential environmental disaster area in 1982 when Ted Smith founded the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition in response to the public health threat created by hazardous groundwater contamination from high-tech manufacturing facilities in San Jose.

After organizing the community to clean up the groundwater contamination, the Coalition pressured computer and electronics manufacturers to make more environmentally friendly choices and use cleaner production methods. Hewlett Packard and Dell Computers led the industry in actively promoting the Coalition's Computer TakeBack Campaign, which Smith started in 1997 to get computer companies to recycle obsolete computers appropriately.

In other words, this guy is  for real.
Now Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Cupertino  and San Jose are better places to live.  But in other parts of the world it is still very bad.
This is too dressing. I want to stop here. Don't ask me about POPs.

[patio]

What about POP's ? ?

[Geek-9pm]

You should not ask. POP is almost an alternative 'end of the world as we kn ow sit.'
a POIP is a Persistent Organic Pollutant. At one  time the UN list the 'dirty doze' as:

The "Dirty Dozen"
aldrin ¹
chlordane ¹
dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane (DDT)¹
dieldrin¹
endrin¹
heptachlor¹
hexachlorobenzene ¹,²
mirex¹
toxaphene¹
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) ¹,²
polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins²(dioxins)
polychlorinated dibenzofurans² (furans)
1-Intentionally Produced.
2-Unintentionally Produced - Result from some industrial processes and combustion.
For more information, see table below.
http://www.epa.gov/international/toxics/pop.html

A number of these comes from the electronic industry. The way cell phones sales are going world-wide, fabrication of cell phones will become the main source of POPs.  Yes, they are controlled in North America and Europe., but most of the world is still far behind in controlling careless POP disposal. Chine is, arguable, the worst with the rest of SE Asia close in second place.

Notice PCB. Widely used, Polychlorinated Biphenyls  are  important material in electrical and electronic equipment. The possibility of getting everybody to stop using this chemical group is very small.

Many POPs are a paradox. They seem to be stable, yet that can become volatile and spread  around. And then can concentrate in one place.

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are organic compounds that are resistant to environmental degradation through chemical, biological, and photolytic processes.[1] Because of this, they have been observed to persist in the environment, to be capable of long-range transport, bioaccumulate in human and animal tissue, biomagnify in food chains,[1] and to have potential significant impacts on human health and the environment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_organic_pollutant

I confess that most of my study has been in electronics and I had not idea how much impact minerals and chemical compounds have non the environment.

Shall I stop? Do you want to ask me about Gold? Yes Gold, that wonderful stuff they use when you need to crown a tooth. No, it is not a POP.  It is safe.  For you an me. But not everybody.

Go ahead, ask me about Gold!  It will ruin your day!

[patio]

What about Gold ? ? ?

[BC_Programmer]

But the mining industry, world wide, continues to harm people.

Everybody is all about people... but won't somebody please think about the canaries?

[Geek-9pm]

Gold is very important in the fabrication of smartphones as well s loather electronic devices. Very small amounts of gold are needed. But you just don't go to Fort Knox and say "May I have a cup of gold? I need to build 10,000 cell phones this month."

In Africa and South America third world poor people prefer to work in gold mining rather than  stay on the farm. It pays better. And they risk their health to make more money.

A common practice is use of mercury  to recover gold from ore. If done in  a  proper  facility, it works great. But in the third-world the idea of a closed system recovery is not popular.  Instead, they release  the mercury vapor into the air.

Mercury vapor in the air is bad for people and birds.

The canaries?
Yes, it kills them too.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/science/study-finds-mercury-in-more-northeastern-bird-species.html?_r=0

[patio]

What about rare earth minerals ? ?
Why are my flourescent light bulbs so expensive now ? ?

[BC_Programmer]

What about rare earth minerals ? ?
Why are my flourescent light bulbs so expensive now ? ?

It's indirectly related to the Feline's attempts to take over the worlds grain supply.

[Geek-9pm]

Yes, that's a good point. the so-called rare earth minerals are elements that are hard to find. Actually, they are not really hard to find. Most of the current production comes from China. Reportedly 92% of rare earth minerals come from China. the mining of these minerals does not have a great impact on the environment of the rest of the world. However, the impact of this type of mining is a serious issue for China.
This post was about smart phones and cell phones because they are now becoming the number one item in all the earth. There are about as many smart phones or cell phones out there as the world's population. This means that there are people that do not have lights in the house but they do have a cell phone.
My guess is that the problems the Chinese have will translate into higher prices for products used in the rest of the world. And that includes computers, nuclear power plants, and hybrid cars.
About your light bulbs. Yes, they are terribly expensive. They're supposed to last five years, ha ha, big joke. And where do you dispose of them? And by the way, ordinary old-fashioned light bulbs are made of tungsten. Yet another rare earth.
So do I have a solution to this problem? I have some thoughts about that, but maybe I just won't say anything right now. Still, I love my iPhone and do not intend to give it up. And my laptop computer. And my desktop. And my fluorescent light. 

Here is a link that has a fair discussion about rare earth minerals.
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/translating-uncle-sam/stories/what-are-rare-earth-metals

OK, here  is my plan. Take away all the stuff from everybody. Except for me and a few of my friends. Problem  solved.