Frazzoli Chiara, Bocca Beatrice, Battistini Beatrice, Ruggieri Flavia, Rovira Joaquim, Amadi Cecilia Nwadiuto, Offor Samuel James, Orisakwe Orish E
Department of Cardiovascular and Endocrine-Metabolic Diseases, and Ageing, Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Italian National Institute of Health), Rome, Italy.
Department of Environment and Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy.
Environ Health Insights. 2024 Sep 12;18:11786302241271553. doi: 10.1177/11786302241271553. eCollection 2024.
Despite steady progress in the development and promotion of the circular economy as a model, an overwhelming proportion of technological devices discarded by the Global North still finds its way to the Global South, where technology-related environmental health problems start from the predation of resources and continue all the way to recycling and disposal. We reviewed literature on TCEs in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), focussing on: the sources and levels of environmental pollution; the extent of human exposure to these substances; their role in the aetiology of human diseases; their effects on the environment. Our review shows that even minor and often neglected technology-critical elements (TCEs), like rare earth elements (REEs) and platinum group elements (PGEs), reveal the environmental damage and detrimental health effects caused by the massive mining of raw materials, exacerbated by improper disposal of e-waste (from dumping to improper recycling and open burning). We draw attention of local research on knowledge gaps such as workable safer methods for TCE recovery from end-of-life products, secondary materials and e-waste, environmental bioremediation and human detoxification. The technical and political shortcomings in the management of TCEs in SSA is all the more alarming against the background of unfavourable determinants of health and a resulting higher susceptibility to diseases, especially among children who work in mines and e-waste recycling sites or who reside in dumping sites.This paper demonstrates, for the first time, that the role of unjust North-South dynamics is evident even in the environmental levels of minor trace elements and that the premise underlying attempts to solve the problem of e-waste dumped in Africa through recycling and disposal technology is in fact misleading. The influx of foreign electrical and electronic equipments should be controlled and limited by clearly defining what is a 'useful' second-hand device and what is e-waste; risks arising from device components or processing by-products should be managed differently, and scientific uncertainty and One Health thinking should be incorporated in risk assessment.
尽管循环经济作为一种模式在发展和推广方面取得了稳步进展，但全球北方丢弃的绝大多数技术设备仍流向了全球南方，在那里，与技术相关的环境卫生问题从资源掠夺开始，一直持续到回收和处理环节。我们回顾了撒哈拉以南非洲（SSA）关于关键技术元素（TCEs）的文献，重点关注：环境污染的来源和程度；人类接触这些物质的程度；它们在人类疾病病因中的作用；它们对环境的影响。我们的综述表明，即使是微量且常常被忽视的关键技术元素，如稀土元素（REEs）和铂族元素（PGEs），也揭示了原材料大规模开采造成的环境破坏和有害健康影响，而电子垃圾的不当处置（从倾倒到不当回收和露天焚烧）则加剧了这种影响。我们提请当地研究关注知识空白，例如从报废产品、二次材料和电子垃圾中回收TCEs的可行更安全方法、环境生物修复和人体解毒。在撒哈拉以南非洲，TCEs管理方面的技术和政治缺陷在健康不利因素以及由此导致的对疾病更高易感性的背景下，尤其是在矿山和电子垃圾回收站点工作或居住在倾倒场的儿童中，显得更加令人担忧。本文首次表明，不公正的南北动态即使在微量微量元素的环境层面也很明显，而且通过回收和处置技术解决倾倒在非洲的电子垃圾问题的尝试所依据的前提实际上具有误导性。应通过明确界定什么是“有用的”二手设备以及什么是电子垃圾来控制和限制外国电气和电子设备的流入；应区别管理设备部件或加工副产品产生的风险，并将科学不确定性和“同一健康”思维纳入风险评估。
