Journal of Health and Pollution

E-waste (electronic waste from discarded computers and printers, cell phones, televisions and similar consumer products) is a complicated mixture of metals, chemicals and plastics.

Despite the Basel Convention controlling the export of e-waste, e-waste is often sent to low-income countries under the guise of “working products”. Recently countries in Africa, such as Ghana and Nigeria, have had a deluge of e-waste.  Non-working products are usually burned to recover some of the materials, such as here at the Agbogbloshie scrap yard in Ghana, releasing a cocktail of toxins into the air.