Super Mario v the exploding laptop

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 18 December 2007 10:36

Your IT - Home IT

Greenpeace has co-opted popular game characters into a video to boost its campaign to get brominated flame retardants eliminated from electronic equipment. The industry body representing the manufacturers of these has hit back with scare tactics. Greenpeace has created a page on its website 'Clash of the Consoles: Battle for a green future'   featuring a video in which the iconic figures of Nintendo's Mario, Microsoft's Master Chief and Sony's Kratos are the lead characters doing battle against toxic chemicals.

Greenpeace says: "We've created this site because our investigations have revealed that Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony do not have games consoles free of the worst toxic chemicals. Also, Microsoft and Nintendo do not take responsibility for their consoles when they become obsolete. Game consoles have components common to PCs, in which levels of hazardous chemicals are being reduced. But console manufacturers have so far failed to achieve any progress in cutting back on the same substances in their products."

Zeina Al Hajj, Greenpeace International toxics campaigner, said: "They are lagging way behind the makers of mobile phones and PCs who have been reducing the toxic load of their products over the past year."

In response the Bromine Science and Environmental Foundation (BSEF) which represents BFR manufacturers, retardants, has issued a press release drawing attention to a video on YouTube showing a laptop computer first smoking, then flaming and finally exploding spectacularly while being charged at Los Angeles Airport and claiming that "the reason BFRs are present in electric and electronic devices is to protect consumers from the risks of fire."

According to BSEF "Brominated Flame Retardants (BFRs) are thoroughly tested chemicals. Deca-BDE and TBBPA, the two BFRs most likely to be used in electronic devices have been subjected to rigorous scientific risk assessments by the European authorities which concluded that these substances present no risk to consumers."