In an office nestled at the base of a sand dune with a view of Lake Michigan, it helped further the Department of Natural Resources' stated goal of "conservation, protection, management, use and enjoyment of the state's natural resources."

Its retirement was not nearly so idealistic.

Dozens of toxic chemicals and metals from its innards were likely burned and spewed into the air of Lagos, Nigeria. It was in that African port city where No. 121219 joined tons of other toxics-laden electronics from U.S. offices and households in unregulated disposal -- usually by open-pit burning that poisons the air and potentially taints the waters of that developing country, according to a report scheduled for release today.

Michigan's state government is changing its computer-disposal methods in part to prevent stories like that of No. 121219. But that computer's journey from protecting resources to polluting them is a sobering local link to an investigation of overseas dumping of obsolete electronics.

The Seattle-based Basel Action Network discovered the DNR's computer -- and thousands of others from American homes, businesses and government offices -- arriving daily in Lagos, where most are burned or discarded with no environmental safeguards.

The result is the uncontrolled release of components, including cancer-causing chemicals and substances that disrupt human hormonal and immune systems. A typical computer and monitor contain several pounds of lead, plus toxics like arsenic, mercury, copper and cadmium.

"Reuse is a good thing, bridging the digital divide is a good thing. But exporting loads of techno-trash in the name of these lofty ideals and seriously damaging the environment and health of poor communities in developing countries is criminal," said Jim Puckett, coordinator of the Basel Action Network.

Nearly 150 million computers will be recycled in the United States this year, but that still is a very low percentage of all of the computers disposed of nationally, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency. In Michigan, state officials estimate only 5% of consumer electronics are reused or recycled.

Even consumers who turn in equipment for recycling would be surprised to learn that many of the so-called recyclers are unregulated operators in poor countries, according to the Basel Action Network's study.

At an Oct. 15 hazardous waste collection event in Southfield, dozens of people unloaded computer equipment with little thought to its fate.

"I have no idea what they do with it. I just trust they do the right thing," said Scott Matash, 29, of Farmington Hills, who turned in his computer.

Fortunately for Matash, that event was run by the Resource Recovery and Recycling Authority of Southwest Oakland County, which sends its materials to an SQS Inc. plant in Bowling Green, Ohio. There, the computers are stripped; the materials are recycled, resold, or disposed of in accordance with U.S. hazardous waste laws.

But there are no such laws in Nigeria, where the appetite for reusable electronic equipment is huge, Puckett said. Roughly 17 ship containers capable of holding 800 computer monitors each arrive daily in Lagos, Puckett said. Nearly half of them come from the United States.

But only about 30% of the electronic goods jammed into the containers are usable, according to the Computer Association of Nigeria. The rest are burned or dumped in ways that would be criminal felonies in the United States.

Companies aiming for quick cash from cheap materials typically do such shipping.

Such was the case with No. 121219, a 1999 Dell purchased at a state auction in April. Its new owner became Augustine Ikeji, an associate professor in the computer science department at Eastern Michigan University.

Ikeji paid $14,235.67 for 57 skids of computer equipment, including 1,249 CPUs, 277 monitors and 60 laptops, according to state records. He said Friday that he bought the equipment as a middleman for a Nigerian businessman whose company resells it to Nigerian schools, businesses and cyber cafes.

He doubts the Basel Action Network's contention that most of the equipment is burned or dumped.

"Why would someone buy it to burn it?" Ikeji asked. "We only buy what we use." For instance, he said, "We aren't buying any Pentium 7's anymore, because there's no market for them."

Ikeji said he believes every one of the 1,249 CPUs purchased in April was in working condition and "absolutely" will be reused in Nigeria.

If the computers weren't operable, such an overseas sale would be illegal in many countries under an international treaty, the Basel Convention, designed to prevent the dumping of hazardous waste from developed nations in Third World countries. But the United States is the only developed country not to have ratified the treaty and thus isn't bound by it, Puckett said.

So, it's legal to send computers like No. 121219 -- even if it's not repairable -- to places like Nigeria. Many other U.S. computers go to poor Asian countries, where a Basel Action Network investigation in 2001 found similar disposal problems. That investigation uncovered the widespread practice of unprotected workers using primitive tools and dangerous acid baths to retrieve tiny bits of valuable metals from computer components.

But no more No. 121219s will occur, state officials say, because Michigan is changing its computer-disposal methods. Future auctions will require bidders to verify the proper disposal.

And under a new pilot program, the state will pay a $21-per-computer recovery fee to Dell for 7,500 new computers going to the Department of Human Services this year. The fee covers proper disposal once the computers are returned to Dell at the end of their lives.

"From this point forward, we will be contracting with a recycling vendor," said Kurt Weiss, spokesman for the state's Department of Information Technology. "This is a better way."