Toxicity trends in E-Waste: A comparative analysis of metals in discarded mobile phones
Open accessAbstract
Mobile phones and various electronic products contribute to the world's fastest-growing category of hazardous waste with international repercussions. We investigated the trends in potential human health impacts and ecotoxicity of waste mobile phones through quantitative life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods and regulatory total threshold limit concentrations. A market-dominant sample of waste basic phones and smartphones manufactured between 2001 and 2015, were analyzed for toxicity trends based on 19 chemicals. The results of the LCIA (using USEtox model) show an increase in the relative mass of toxic materials over the 15-year period. We found no significant changes in the use of toxic components in basic phones, whereas smartphones contained a statistically significant increase in the content of toxic materials from 2006 to 2015. Nickel contributed the largest risk for carcinogens in mobile phones, but the contributions of lead and beryllium were also notable. Silver, zinc and copper contents were associated with non-cancer health risks. Copper components at 45,818-77,938 PAF m 3/kg dominated ecotoxicity risks in mobile phones. Overall, these results highlight the increasing importance of monitoring trends in materials use for electronic product manufacturing and electronic-waste management processes that should prevent human and environmental exposures to toxic components.
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Electronic waste arising from discarded electronics and electrical appliances is one of the fastest growing categories of waste in both size and toxicity.
“Electronic waste (e-waste) arising from discarded electronics and electrical appliances, such as refrigerators, washing machines, TVs, mobile phones, tablets, and computers is one of the fastest growing categories of waste in both size and toxicity (Gao et al., 2019; Singh et al., 2019).”
From Designed to break: planned obsolescence as corporate environmental crime (2022) · cites this paper as Singh et al., 2019
The Introduction reports rising global e-waste generation, and the Conclusions report increasing toxic-metal content in smartphones. The paper does not establish that toxicity is rising across e-waste from all the listed types of appliances and electronics; its toxicity analysis concerns discarded mobile phones. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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References 34 · Cited by 86
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Council, E., 2003. Directive 2002/95/EC: Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment. European Union, Brussels, Belgium, pp. 19-23 2003.
- Ylä-Mella, J., Pongrácz, E., Tanskanen, P., Keiski, R.L., 2007. Environmental impact of mobile phones: material content. Proc. 22nd International Conference on Solid Waste Technology and Management 1612-1617.
- Authors
- Singh, N., Duan, H., Ogunseitan, O. A., Li, J., & Tang, Y.
- Affiliations
- Shenzhen University (CN)
- University of California, Irvine (US)
- State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control (CN)
- Southern University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Singh, Narendra
- Duan, Huabo
- Venue
- Journal of Hazardous Materials
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2019-12
- Volume
- 380
- Pages
- 120898
- ISSN
- 0304-3894 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2960825781
- Cited by
- 86
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 2
- FWCI
- 7.85
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- escholarship.org
- Locations
- Journal of Hazardous Materials (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Shenzhen University
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Waste Management and Disposal › Recycling and Waste Management Techniques
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanical Engineering › Extraction and Separation Processes
- Keywords
- electronic waste, mobile phone waste, toxic metals, smartphones, ecotoxicity, human health risk, carcinogens, copper, nickel, lead, beryllium, silver, zinc, USEtox, life cycle impact assessment, electronic product manufacturing, waste management
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Metals, Risk Assessment, Cell Phone, Electronic Waste
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