Heavily chipped
A study led by Eric Williams and his team at the United Nations University in Tokyo has found that a 2 gramme microchip is equivalent to 1.6 kilogrammes of fossil fuel, 72 grammes of chemicals and 32 kilogrammes of water. Looking into all the chemicals including coal, which are involved in turning raw quartz into a 32 MB RAM microchip, the team found the chip manufacturing required more fuels and solvents because of its tiny size and the need to keep it free from dirt and dust. Making a typical car required only about twice its weight in fossil fuels. According to Eric Williams, "In order to produce one memory chip that weighs two grams, the total amount of materials and fossil fuels required to make that chip is 1,400 grams. That’s 700 times the weight of the original chip." The environmental costs of manufacturing a chip thus far outweigh that of even making a car. With new advances in technology and changing of computers every two years, the environmental impact of owning a computer increases drastically.The focus now has to shift from making chips that run on less power to manufacturing those that require less energy than it does at the present.

Mercurial tempers
Each mercury fever thermometer when broken or thrown away is a threat to health. The one-gram of mercury found in one thermometer is enough to pollute a 20-acre lake, says Michael Bender, Director of the Mercury Policy Project, USA.

Mercury is used in lamps, batteries and electrical equipment, as well as in thermometers and dental fillings. Concern over its presence in the atmosphere arises since mercury is known to cause permanent damage to the brain, nervous system and kidneys. Almost indestructible, mercury when put along with other waste into landfill sites, can easily seep through the groundwater and from there into rivers, lakes and the sea. It can also evaporate into the air, especially if the waste is incinerated.

Though mercury is produced naturally in rocks, soil and volcanoes, industrialisation has boosted up the production of this heavy metal almost three times. Almost 50 to 70 per cent of the 5,000 to 10,000 tonnes of mercury found in the atmosphere is due to human activities. In its evaporated form, mercury can travel for thousands of miles. Since it is know to accumulate in cold places high contamination levels of mercury are to be found in Arctic regions, and especially among fish and animals there. In water, mercury transforms naturally into methyl mercury, a highly toxic compound that gets absorbed by humans and animals. Because it then accumulates up the food chain sea fishes can accumulate large quantities of mercury in their tissue. Pregnant mothers and their fetuses are particularly sensitive to the effects of mercury. According to the Centres for Disease Control (CDC), Atlanta, USA, one-in-ten women of childbearing age have mercury levels in their bodies above what is considered protective for a developing fetus.

Threatened children
A study conducted by Joseph Laquatra, associate professor of design and environmental analysis in the New York State College of Human Ecology at Cornell, in the US, has found children belonging to lower socio-economic status more prone to threats from indoor air pollutants. Their houses have higher levels of radon, lead and mould than those occupied by higher income households. If these children then spend the rest of the day exposed to the same pollutants in a childcare facility, they are at a significantly higher risk for falling sick due to lead poisoning, cancer, asthma attacks and allergies. Studying 328 houses and 75 childcare facilities in six nonmetropolitan counties of New York State, homes of lower income residents were also found to contain higher levels of carbon monoxide. Lack of an effective ventilation fan further aggravates the pollutant level. These houses also had asbestos problems and presence of basement mould. Mould is a known trigger for allergies and asthma. Exposure to lead, asbestos, radon and carbon monoxide can lead to early death.

Cancer clusters
Factors like where a woman lives at birth and puberty may have an impact on her risk of developing breast cancer later. A study conducted by Jo Freudenheim, professor in the department of social and preventive medicine in the University of Buffalo’s school of medicine and biomedical sciences, USA, finds that women who developed breast cancer were more likely to have lived closer together at birth and at their first menstruation than women who did not develop breast cancer. This suggests a possible linkage between breast cancer and early environmental exposure to potential carcinogens.