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People's Daily

BEIJING, China, 18 September 2002 -- Chinese customs officials seized 450 tons of junked computer parts and other electronic waste shipped illegally from the United States, an official said Wednesday.

The disclosure added to evidence that China's trade in imported computer waste meant for recycling is thriving despite a crackdown launched in May after reports of health dangers from unsafe handling.

The 22 shipping containers full of electronic garbage were seized this month in the port of Wenzhou in China's southeast, said a customs official there.

The waste included computer monitors, keyboards, photocopy machines and television sets, said the official, who would give only his surname, Lin.

He wouldn't identify the companies involved or the American port where the shipment originated. He said the case is still under investigation.

Small Chinese companies, many of them in the southeast near Hong Kong, tear apart derelict computers and other electronic items to recover gold and other materials.

Most workers have no protection from toxic fumes released by melting down parts.

"Foreign exporters usually throw electronic garbage to our country by all means for ill purposes," Lin said.

China launched its crackdown after environmentalists earlier this year called attention to health problems in the town of Guiyu, a recycling center near Hong Kong.

Guiyu residents told an Associated Press reporter who visited the town that children there suffered medical problems including breathing ailments, and that there had been a surge in leukemia cases.