The problem of Electronic Waste is not as easy as it seems. That’s because Electronic waste creates a scenario of a complex mixture of toxic chemicals. These chemicals come from multiple sources and through multiple areas. The global waste created by end of life Electronic equipment is growing rapidly. It is estimated that 40 million tons (approximately) of e-waste is produced each year. That’s why it is becoming important that humans should understand how Electronic Waste affects human health and how it can be reduced. The electronic waste consists of hazardous chemicals components which are used to make new devices like cell phones, televisions, laptops etc. Children are more vulnerable to these objects.

Who is responsible?

This problem of increasing Electronic waste cannot be handled by any individual or any company. All of us should come together as a responsible society. Only this way this problem can be solved. That’s why the government is doing multiple things like setting up more and more Electronic recycling plants, working on awareness campaigns etc. People are slowly becoming aware of the problems but many are still not serious. This is because their life is still not affected due to this. According to the new E-waste management rules of 2016, the company producing devices has to manage the task of proper recycling. Here every individual should discard his e-waste properly. Because as discussed above, no one can alone fight the problem. The only solution is to create a balance between the government, manufacturers and the society. Below are some negative Impacts of E-waste:

• Negative impact on the landfills: The first effect is on the soil of the region where e-waste is dumped. When e-waste breaks into smaller components, the toxic chemicals are released. For example cadmium, lead and arsenic. They can affect the growth of the plants. They release toxins into the soil. This way toxins enters the growing crops and enters the human body. There are different types of health complications as well as birth defects.

• Negative impact on water: When the Electronic waste is dumped inland, it reaches groundwater. This way toxin gets mixed in the water. This groundwater is connected to the lakes, ponds and rivers. Thus, as a chain, everything starts getting polluted. Humans use water for many purposes like drinking, washing clothes, bathing etc. This way toxin creates a disturbance by making all the living beings sick who uses this water.

• Negative impact on air: When the e-waste is burned, hydrocarbons are released in the environment. The hydrocarbons pollute the air and enter the body of humans and animals. Mainly hydrocarbons contribute a lot to global warming or greenhouse effect.

• Data breaches: Many people throw their devices into dustbins after deleting the data. They don’t know that this deletion is temporary. Their data can still be recovered and can be used for any illegal purposes. Here they should follow practices of responsible hard drive destruction. Below are some consequences of data breaches:

Loss of revenue: If Electronic devices like computers and mobile phones are dumped by the company then they may have to face fines. That’s because if the client’s data is leaked then he is going to file a lawsuit or a complaint. According to many types of research, 29% of the businesses have to face loss in revenue due to data breaches.

Loss of brand reputation: A security breach does not have only short term effect. Different types of data, for example, private chat, emails may get leaked. Accordingly, the image of the brand or the individual may get affected. In case the details of payment are leaked then this may affect the relationship with the client.

Loss of the individual: Company can still manage with the loss of revenue for once. But when the image of the company is crashed in the market, it is very difficult to improve that. When one client files a complaint then very few clients are interested in the business. Maybe many clients may cancel their ongoing projects due to a lack of data privacy.

Here small businesses think that they won’t be attacked. But almost 50% of the times, small businesses are attacked. This is because their security policies are not robust and most of them don’t take the hard drive destruction policies seriously.

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