Wireless World: Old mobile phones a hazard

United Press International ^ | December 3, 2004 | Gene Koprowski

[kerrywearsbotox]

By Gene J. Koprowski UPI Technology News

Published 12/3/2004 9:04 AM CHICAGO, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- A mobile phone is a disposable product -- consumers buy a new one about every year and a half, and toss the old one in the closet. Then, years later, when they have a major house-cleaning weekend, they find a few old phones collecting dust and toss them out in the trash. Experts told UPI's Wireless World this pattern is starting to become a major environmental issue, as old mobile phones start to fill up garbage dumps across the United States and leach lead, arsenic, gold and other toxins into the groundwater. "There are a lot of heavy metals being released into landfills because of old mobile phones," said Chuck Harrell, an environmental supervisor with the Southeastern Public Service Authority, a government agency in Chesapeake, Va.Now, mobile phone manufacturers such as Motorola Corp. are collaborating with environmentalists and the government to solve this emerging problem. --Wireless World is a weekly series examining the social, cultural and economic impact of mobile telephony technology, by Gene Koprowski, who covers technology for UPI Science News. E-mail sciencemail@upi.com. Copyright © 2001-2004 United Press International

[Psycho_Bunny]

Great story about new ways to dispose of old mobile phones.

I prefer my way....throwing them at people who piss me off. 

You can impart all sorts of wrist-spin to those little Samsungs.

Great story about new ways to dispose of old mobile phones.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Pajamas?

Pajamas are for n00bs!

 

[frgoff]

---
Maybe a little extreme,
---

No. Very extreme. Ridiculously extreme. Nonsensically extreme.

[goodnesswins]

Does your Treo have excel (simple) and word (simple) and outlook (simple address/phone) capabilities? Just wondering.

[editor-surveyor]

"Don't forget there is Americium 241 in smoke detectors"

And wrist watches...

[Chad Fairbanks]

Heavy Metal doesn't harm health. I've listened to it for years, and I'm perfectly fine...

[martin_fierro]

Does your Treo have excel (simple) and word (simple) and outlook (simple address/phone) capabilities? Just wondering.

Yup:

• The Palm OS comes with an Outlook-compatible Address Book.
• I also use the optional Documents to Go, which both converts MS Office docs to a more portable format and syncs them back & forth between the handheld & PC.

[martin_fierro]

Too.
Much.
Information.

< |:P~

[Chad Fairbanks]

I use that too, to sync between my Sony Clie, my Windows Pocket PC, my Laptop and my desktop. Now I just need a cell phone that is compatible with all that, and life will be perfect...

[PeaceBeWithYou]

Hmmmm. More dangerous than this new Nokia?

[ChefKeith]

I still have one of those old massive ones that you could drive a nail with and it would still work, however none of the phone companies will provide service for it anymore.

The last place just laughed at me when I wanted to activate it. So now I have one of those little P.O.S. phones that break when you look at them.

[E.G.C.]

BTT!!!!!!

[snopercod]

We have a local cell-phone company "Ram-Cell" which will still provide service for those old bag phones. They even have a guy who knows how to program them!

You can buy replacement batteries for them from Digi-Key.

[ChefKeith]

Not a bag phone one of these

I think I'll just hang it next to the now extinct Oil Can Spout on the wall.

[blackie]

Some government bureaucrats have way to much time on their hands!

[First_Salute]

Digi-Key bump.

[snopercod]

You know them? What an American success story they are.

I used to buy National Semiconductor digital clock boards from them back in the 70's when that was all they sold. (One of those I bought back then is still working!)

Now they have everything, and yet still treat their small customers just as well as their big ones.

[First_Salute]

Great customer service. Good inventory.

[Jaysun]

Experts told UPI's Wireless World this pattern is starting to become a major environmental issue, as old mobile phones start to fill up garbage dumps across the United States and leach lead, arsenic, gold and other toxins into the groundwater.

None of their "scares" thus far have had merit. Apples contain trace amounts of arsenic naturally - the amount of arsenic in apples is grater than the amount of "toxins" than they usually use to scare the public. First in was brain tumors, now this. Notice that they always go after the big sectors (food chains, cell phone, automobiles, etc.) when they release their nonsense into the public? Can anyone say "hate capitalism"?