Bandyopadhyay Alapan, Mukherjee Abhijit
Department of Community Medicine, Jalpaiguri Government Medical College and Hospital, Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, India.
Department of Community Medicine, Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
Indian J Community Med. 2025 Mar-Apr;50(2):307-311. doi: 10.4103/ijcm.ijcm_686_23. Epub 2025 Jan 30.
India is projected to be one of the largest consumers of electronics and producers of e-waste in the world. There is a dearth of literature regarding the knowledge and practices of the general Indian population regarding e-waste. The present study was conducted to assess the knowledge and practices of the general populace of Siliguri regarding electronic waste.
A cross-sectional study was conducted among the households of Siliguri, West Bengal. Consenting adults were interviewed using the questionnaire. A multi-stage sampling strategy was employed for the study to obtain a sample of 375. A researcher-administered questionnaire was used to collect data.
The mean age of the head of the household was 50.2 ± 13.6 years. Most of the households were nuclear families (56.5%), and 34.4% of them belonged to the upper middle socioeconomic class. The households possessed a median of five devices. It was seen that 93.4% knew that e-waste was harmful to their health. The commonest practice regarding the disposal of e-waste was selling these items to recyclers (47.5%). However, 29.3% of the households reported that due to them not knowing what to do with broken electronics, they stored them at home. A majority (84.8%) of the households reported that they did not use any personal protective equipment while handling e-waste.
While the households assessed knew about the harm of e-waste, their knowledge about e-waste disposal was varied. Furthermore, there was a knowledge-practice gap, leading to them either storing e-waste at home or having other improper handling and disposal practices.
印度预计将成为全球最大的电子产品消费国和电子垃圾生产国之一。关于印度普通民众对电子垃圾的认知和处理方式，相关文献匮乏。本研究旨在评估西里古里普通民众对电子垃圾的认知和处理方式。
在西孟加拉邦西里古里的家庭中开展了一项横断面研究。使用问卷对同意参与的成年人进行访谈。本研究采用多阶段抽样策略，以获取375个样本。通过研究人员管理的问卷收集数据。
户主的平均年龄为50.2±13.6岁。大多数家庭为核心家庭（56.5%），其中34.4%属于社会经济中上层阶级。这些家庭拥有的设备中位数为五件。结果显示，93.4%的人知道电子垃圾对健康有害。处理电子垃圾最常见的做法是将这些物品卖给回收商（47.5%）。然而，29.3%的家庭报告称，由于不知道如何处理坏掉的电子产品，他们将其存放在家中。大多数（84.8%）家庭报告称，他们在处理电子垃圾时未使用任何个人防护设备。
虽然接受评估的家庭了解电子垃圾的危害，但他们对电子垃圾处理的认知各不相同。此外，存在认知与实践的差距，导致他们要么将电子垃圾存放在家中，要么有其他不当的处理方式。
