‘60 Minutes’: Following the trail of toxic e-waste
Posted by: admin in Electric Car News, Electric Vehicle, General Motors, Hybrids, Tesla, hybridWhen 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley and his crew went to China to record the black market dismantling of electronic waste, or e-waste, the experience was almost as hazardous for the 60 Minutes team as working with the toxic material is for poor Chinese workers.
Jumped by a gang of men overseeing the e-waste operations who tried to take the CBS team’s cameras, Pelley’s crew managed to escape and bring back footage of the hazardous activities. Pelley’s investigation will be broadcast this Sunday, Nov. 9, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
The Chinese attackers were trying to protect a lucrative business of mining the e-waste — junked computers, televisions and other old electronic products — for valuable components, including gold. “They’re afraid of being found out. This is smuggling. This is illegal,” says Jim Puckett, founder of the Basel Action Network, a group working to stop the dumping of toxic materials in poor countries that certifies ethical e-waste recyclers in the United States. “A lot of people are turning a blind eye here. And if somebody makes enough noise, they’re afraid this is all going to dry up.”
E-waste workers in Guiyu, China, where Pelley’s team videotaped, put up with the dangerous conditions for the a day the job pays. They use caustic chemicals and burn the plastic parts to get at the valuable components, often releasing toxins that they not only inhale, but release into the air, the ground and the water. Potable water must now be trucked into Guiyu and scientists have discovered that the city has the highest levels of cancer-causing dioxins in the world. Pregnancies in Guiyu are six times more likely to result in miscarriages, and seven out of 10 children there have too much lead in their blood.
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November 10th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Shame on the Republican Enterprise Recycling…..that total GEEK…… he does not know where his shipment goes…….How dare he??????Yah right…..he does not know, and he said a small business……..THAT DID NOT LOOK LIKE A SMALL BUSINESS……. I hope he gets his Karma and is closed down and FINED