December 1, 2003 – Most of the world's electronic trash, especially old computers, is dumped in China, causing severe environmental problems and illnesses among residents, according to a state media report.

About 80 cent of the world's electronic rubbish is transferred to Asia every year, 90 per cent of which ends up in China, the Xinhua news agency said. Originally only south China's Guangdong province was seriously threatened by imported electronic trash, but now dozens of the country's provinces and municipalities are affected, the agency said.

The large amount of trash dumped in Chinese cities has created serious health hazards for residents, environmental activists warned.

Lai Yun, a leading environmentalist in China, who visited the town of Guiyu in Guangdong province 10 times last year, said about 80 per cent of local children, as well as some local migrant workers, suffered respiratory diseases and skin diseases, due to pollution from electronic trash.

She said she believes what she saw in Guiyu was just "the tip of the iceberg" in China.

Chinese authorities have listed Guangdong's towns of Guiyu, Longtang and Dali and other areas as the country's major collection and distribution centres for electronic trash, Xinhua said.

The other areas are the Taizhou region of east China's Zhejiang province, Huanghua city of north China's Hebei province as well as some areas in Hunan and Jiangxi provinces.

Some developed countries still allow the export of electronic trash, leading to little effort by computer manufacturers and others to try to retrieve used computers.

Signs the problem could be curbed have emerged, however.

The European Union has drafted laws to require its computer producers to take the retrieval of used computers into consideration when estimating production costs.

All computer producers are required not to use any environmentally hazardous material in computer production.

China is also preparing to draft laws to regulate the country's electronic rubbish retrieval and recycling system to make clear that it is the computer producer's duty to retrieve and deal with used electronic products.