Sunday, November 03, 2013

The Lead Poison in Your Mobile Phone

Mobile phone penetration in the UK has reached over 100% according to stats found online. The reason being many people have more than one phone. On top of multiple phone ownership the age of mobile phone users is widening to include a larger proportion of the population. Both these factors are leading to an increasing number of handsets being sold in the UK.

The phone manufacturers also capitalise on the humans desire to have the latest most up to date gadget with newer, better, faster phones released every week. Mobile phones becoming outdated very quickly even faster than computers. What do many people do with their old mobile phone? It is still common for people to throw old phones in the rubbish to rot in landfill.

Why you should not throw old mobiles:

Mobile phones are made with complex metals and chemicals in the battery, circuit board and outer casing. When an old phone is disposed of via landfill the lead, mercury, cadmium, polyvinyl, etc. can cause harm to the H20 in the environment and soil.

The Dangers of Lead Poisoning

Lead found in your phone can be poisonous to humans. Lead can be inhaled, swallowed and absorbed though the skin. Lead is dangerous as soon as it gets into the system it can spread around the body. Lead can affect the ability of red blood cells to carry oxygen around the body if it gets into the blood stream. If lead gets into the bones it can interfere with the absorption of calcium into the body.

You should not be worried however about getting lead poisoning from your mobile as compared to a TV set or old CRT computer monitor which has as much as 5lbs of lead an old mobile phone will only have a trace of the substance.

However with millions of mobiles being dumped into landfills around the globe this could leak enough harmful lead back into the environment.

In order to stop harmful poison being released into the atmosphere you should use a company which offers phone recycling http://www.mobile-phonerecycling.com