Electronic Recycling Report | Good for the environment, less for workers

Exposure to chemical substances, precarious conditions and racism: a report by the Robert-Sauvé Research Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (IRSST) which is published this Monday sheds new light on working conditions and the risks to which faced by workers at electronics recycling centers.

Alice Girard-Bosse
The Press

While recycling your old electronics is good for the environment, exercise can actually be bad for workers’ health. Employees in electronics recycling centers, whose mandate is to dismantle products in order to sort the components, are exposed daily to a mixture of potentially toxic substances.

IRSST researchers traveled to various electronic recycling centers throughout the province to document working conditions and worker exposure.

Their finding: 9 metals and 27 flame retardants, mixtures of chemicals that make objects less flammable, were measured in the workers’ blood and urine. “This range of substances and different metals could eventually have effects on their health, such as damage to the kidneys, the nervous system and the male reproductive system”, indicates to The Press IRSST researcher and first author of the report, Sabrina Gravel.

The researchers also noted a decrease in testosterone and an increase in estradiol, two sex hormones, in the male workers.

The use of electrical and electronic devices is constantly growing in the world. When they are no longer functional, recycling them is an interesting solution for reducing the ecological footprint, but studies in several countries have shown that workers can be exposed to a mixture of potentially toxic substances.

“Worrying” results

“Looking at studies elsewhere, we suspected that there were going to be concentrations of certain contaminants that were possibly high, but we had no information at all on what was happening in Quebec,” says Ms.^me Gravel.

His research team visited seven recycling companies in six regions of Quebec to take air, urine and blood samples from 100 workers. The results were “concerning enough” to warrant some action to reduce worker exposure, Ms.^me Gravel.

Among the metals measured in workers, some are carcinogenic, such as arsenic, cadmium or nickel. Cadmium, lead and mercury as well as several flame retardants can also affect hormones.

Even if the concentrations of metals did not exceed the limits allowed in Quebec, the addition of these different substances could have toxic effects, particularly on the brain and kidneys, indicates Ms.^me Gravel.

Precarious environment

The research team also documented staff working conditions through interviews conducted with some 30 workers and managers. What emerged: workers often live in a situation of vulnerability, particularly with regard to their level of education, their precarious financial situation, the type of employment relationship and the lack of social benefits.

During the interviews, the presence of racism was also reported by workers. “We must pay attention to this phenomenon which can be a source of tension and significant division within work collectives”, noted the report.

“There is still time to act”

In view of the report’s conclusions, the researchers made a few recommendations. First, efforts should be made to reduce the exposure of workers to airborne dust in companies. “Good ventilation, dust extraction at source and better cleaning of work surfaces must be encouraged”, explains the researcher.

Given the presence of lead in the air and in the blood of several workers, annual biological monitoring must also be implemented if it has not already been established, notes the report.

“We can see that there are things to improve, but it’s an expanding area, so it’s still early days. There is still time to act,” said Ms.^me Gravel.

In response to an interview request from The Pressthe Electronic Products Recycling Association said in an email that all companies it works with are “audited to validate compliance with requirements and to ensure they maintain sound environmental management practices. as well as adequate control and security measures”.