U.S. environmental health scientist Oladele A. Ogunseitan and colleagues from the University of California (Irvine) also found that lead-free cell phones are classified as hazardous waste under California law because of their high contain levels of antimony, copper, nickel, and zinc.

Special concern had been levied against cell phones because of the number that are thrown away each year in the United States. The California researchers estimate that over 700 million cell phones have already been discarded into dumps and landfills or are awaiting disposal into such sites. In 2005 alone, about 130 million cell phones were thrown away.

These researchers and others are concerned with the implications of these results with regards to cell phones already in landfills across the country and for the manufacturer of future cell phones and their potential affect on the environment when they are thrown away.

The findings titled “Leaching Assessments of Hazardous Materials in Cellular Telephones” from Ogunseitan and his University of California at Irvine colleagues (John D. Lincoln, Andrew A. Shapiro, and Jean-Daniel M. Saphores) appear in the April 1, 2007 issue, 41(7) pages 2572-2578, of the American Chemical Society’s journal Environmental Science & Technology.

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