Current News
A compilation of recent articles from around the Web
Foxconn Food Poisoning: Dozens Released After Protest at Apple Supplier’s Plant in India
20, December 2021
Police have released dozens of those detained for blocking a key highway in a protest against food poisoning at a Foxconn unit, the country’s second instance of unrest at an Apple supplier factory in a year.
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Mass protest by Foxconn workers in TN, allege company hushed up severe food poisoning
18, December 2021
Amid rumours of death following an incident of food poisoning in workers of Foxconn’s factory at Sriperumbudur, hundreds blocked the Chennai-Bengaluru highway demanding answers.
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It’s time to start talking about a human right to a just transition
14, October 2021
As the ILO (International Labour Organization) Commission on the Future of Work explained, global warming, as well as the actions needed to mitigate it, are likely to be deeply disruptive for all workers, from those in carbon-intensive industries to those whose jobs are threatened by the impacts of warming. So, how do we save our planet and do so equitably so as not to reinforce existing hierarchies around race, gender and sexual orientation, and indeed dismantle them?
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Apple, Dell, HP commit to protect workers from hazardous chemicals
05 August 2021
Electronics giants Apple, Dell and HP Inc have committed to the Towards Zero Exposure programme – an initiative aimed at reducing worker exposure to hazardous chemicals along the electronics supply chain.
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Why the world should pay attention to Taiwan’s drought
Date: April 20, 2021
Taiwan is supposed to be one of the rainiest places in the world – its climate is subtropical in the northern and central regions, and tropical in the south. Typhoons are common in summer and autumn, and it also gets monsoons. It rains so often here that umbrellas are placed at subway stations and businesses for anyone to borrow.
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Electric vehicles can drive more responsible mining
Date: February 12, 2021
The ocean waters surrounding eastern Indonesia and Papua New Guinea lie within the biodiverse Coral Triangle, home to some of the world’s most highly concentrated – and endangered – coral reefs. In addition to being globally significant ecological sites, the reefs supply habitat for several important commercial and subsistence fisheries central to local communities’ lives.
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IPEN, SAICM Report on Chemicals’ Disproportionate Impacts on Women
Date: January 20, 2021
A report published by the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN) and the Strategic Alliance for International Chemicals Management (SAICM) illustrates the impact of chemicals on women, as well as gender inequalities in decision-making on chemicals and waste management. The report suggests concrete steps to protect women’s health and their decision-making role.
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NAACP Resolutions in Support for Sustainable Electronics Throughout the World
Date: August 1, 2020
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) – the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the US – has just endorsed a sweeping resolution in support of Sustainable Electronics – it is a major milestone in our global coalition building!
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Solar panel recycling: Turning ticking time bombs into opportunities
Date: May 27, 2020
Australia has certainly demonstrated its appetite for solar power. Now, with the average lifespan of a solar panel being approximately 20 years, many installations from the early 2000’s are set to reach end-of-life. Will they end up in landfill or be recycled?
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5G: the true cost will be measured in e-waste
Date: August 4, 2020
5G, the successor to the 4G network currently servicing your mobile phone, is more than just the next generation of phone network technology. In increasing download speeds dramatically, it will also enable new connected technologies. But it could also usher in an unprecedented wave of electronic waste we’re not prepared for.
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US electronics network to start worker exposure programme
Date: July 9, 2020
A US multi-stakeholder group is starting a programme in October that aims to protect workers from hazardous chemicals along the electronics supply chain.
The Clean Electronics Production Network (CEPN), which formed in 2016, says workers in electronics production facilities around the world – especially in emerging economies – are “often involuntarily exposed to toxic chemicals”.
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Global e-waste growth rate poses increased danger to the environment
Date: July 8, 2020
Recent research findings published by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) have revealed that global e-waste is growing at an alarming rate. Many people worldwide use electronic gadgets such as smartphones, laptops and TVs, but few countries have an elaborate plan for disposing or recycling the waste generated. Today, approximately 5.16 billion people use mobile phones globally. Interestingly, most people only use a new phone for 2.5 years.
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Congrats, Humanity, We Trashed a Record Number of Electronics Last Year
Date: July 2nd, 2020
The world keeps producing more headphones, microwaves, laptops, air conditioners, and other pieces of electronics even as a record amount ends up as e-waste. A new report concluded that in 2019, humanity generated its highest ever total of e-waste globally, underscoring a rapidly growing problem.
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How COVID-19 Has Impacted the Electronics Supply Chain
Date: June 2, 2020
The pandemic is a global crisis that no one could have anticipated but everyone could have prepared for. The spread of the lethal illness has hammered companies across the electronics supply chain. But it has also presented itself as a golden opportunity.
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Factory behind India gas leak operated illegally until 2019
Date: May 11, 2020
The chemical factory that leaked gas into a coastal Indian city on Thursday morning, killing at least 12 people and putting hundreds in hospital, was operating illegally until at least the middle of 2019, documents show.
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Visakhapatnam gas leak | Villagers stage protest in front of LG Polymers
Date: May 9, 2020
Tension prevailed in front of the main gate of LG Polymers in RR Venkatapuram in Visakhapatnam, as villagers carrying four dead bodies, who died due to the leakage of styrene monomer gas, staged a protest, demanding the shifting of the company, here on Saturday.
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Silicon Valley Is One of the Most Polluted Places in the Country
Date: September 22, 2019
Microchip manufacturers contaminated the groundwater in the 1980s. Almost 40 years later, the cleanup still isn’t complete.
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Gas Leak in India at LG Factory Kills 11 and Sickens Hundreds
Date: May 7, 2020
Residents in eastern India woke up in the middle of the night surrounded by a cloud of styrene vapor. Many couldn’t breathe.
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Trade body files lawsuit against EU flame retardant ban…
Date: March 12, 2020
BSEF calls prohibition on entire class of chemicals under Ecodesign ‘unlawful’
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Case–control study of brain and other central nervous system cancer among workers at semiconductor and storage device manufacturing facilities
This study evaluated the relationship between brain and other central nervous system cancer (‘CNS cancer’) and exposures at two semiconductor and electronic module manufacturing facilities and at a storage device manufacturing facility.
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What E-Waste Journalism Gets Wrong
Date: March 2, 2020
This article argues that consumers need to understand a lot more than just where old electronics end up- we must look at the full life cycle to understand the true costs, from mining, to production, to use and end of life
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Sweden finds hazardous chemicals in over 25% of electrical goods tested
The Swedish Chemicals Agency (Kemi) has detected lead, cadmium or short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) in more than 25% of electrical products tested.
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How a Rising Anti-Mining Movement Is Challenging Portugal’s “White Gold” Rush
Date: 29 December 2019
The global transition to renewable energy and electric vehicles — technologies that are currently powered by lithium-ion batteries — is creating a high demand for lithium, popularly known as white gold, among other minerals.
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Chinese metal mines feed the global demand for gadgets. They’re also poisoning China’s poorest regions.
Date: 29 December 2019
DACHANG, China — Day and night, overfilled trucks rumble down Nanjiu Road in the saw-toothed hills that stretch to the Vietnam border. It’s a procession at the heart of one of China’s most hazardous industries.
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Google admits workers making its tech exposed to ‘birth defect’ chemical
Date: 28 December 2019
Concerns have been raised over the safety of workers at factories used by Google were exposed to harmful chemicals amid hundreds of safety violations.
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Mining turned Indonesian seas red. The drive for greener cars could herald a new toxic tide.
Date: 20 November 2019
POMALAA, Indonesia — Where forested hills dip into the sea, Sahman Ukas scoops up rusty-red topsoil.
His hands hold nickel that is more concentrated than many of the world’s richest deposits.
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Chad gold mine collapse leaves about 30 people dead
Date: 26 September 2019
About 30 people have died in a collapse at an illegal gold mine in Chad near the Libyan border.
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Silicon Valley Is One of the Most Polluted Places in the Country
Date: 22 September 2019
Microchip manufacturers contaminated the groundwater in the 1980s. Almost 40 years later, the cleanup still isn’t complete.
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Gold mining leaves heart of Peruvian Amazon a wasteland
Date: 21 September 2019
A decade of illegal gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon has left thousands of acres of rainforest a wasteland.
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Global Ban on Exporting Hazardous Waste to Developing Countries Becomes Law
Date: 8 September 2019
Seattle, Washington, USA. 09 August, 2019. Croatia’s 6th of September deposit of ratification of the 1995 Basel Ban Amendment has allowed this global waste dumping prohibition to finally enter into the force of international law.
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