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Associated Press

BEIJING, 30 May 2002 -- China will crack down on illegal imports of junked computers and other high- tech trash following reports of health and environmental damage caused by unsafe recycling, the official Xinhua News Agency said Thursday.

Chinese environmental officials will also shut down factories where toxic chemicals are being released by the improper recycling of e-trash — mostly printers, computer screens and circuit boards from countries like the United States, the report said.

"Some developing countries run the risk of becoming dumping grounds for electronic wastes from developed countries," Xinhua warned.

Xinhua said the crackdown comes after international attention was focused on health problems in the town of Guiyu, near Hong Kong in the southeast province of Guangdong.

Industrial pollution at Guiyu was reported in February by environmental groups and The Associated Press.

In February, Guiyu residents told The Associated Press that children were falling sick with mysterious breathing ailments and deadly diseases like leukemia.

They said the high-tech garbage was smuggled into China from America and also Japan. Most of it is computer equipment collected in these countries for recycling, which gets smuggled to China because of cheap labor costs.

The trade appears to flourish despite a Chinese ban on the import of computer waste.

The e-trash ends up in family-run workshops in towns like Guiyu, where it is ripped apart for reusable parts and precious metals like gold and platinum.

Environmental groups said the crude extraction methods released poisonous chemicals into the air and nearby streams and wells.

In Guiyu, stacks of broken hard drives and computers were clearly visible filling disused rice paddies. In the recycling workshops, young women wore no facial protection from acrid fumes as they melted circuit boards over open fires.

The Xinhua report did not specify what actions will be taken. Guiyu residents and local officials have said the town's illegal recycling industry has survived repeated crackdowns in the past.