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South China Morning Post

CHINA, 31 May 2002 -- China is to tighten controls on the dumping of electronic waste from foreign countries. Departments in charge of environmental protection, Customs and quarantine will soon publish a list of banned electronic waste including unwanted computer hardware, televisions, monitors, photocopying machines, video cameras and telephones, Xinhua said.

The report said the move follows incidents when the mainland was used by foreign companies as a dumping ground for electronic waste.

It said in Guiyu, in Guangdong, residents had been poisoned because villagers were recovering metal parts from the waste without protecting themselves or being aware of the dangers.

The plight of Guiyu was highlighted in February in a report by environment groups including the Silicon Valley Toxic Coalition,Greenpeace China and the Basel Action Network.

According to the report, most of the waste came from the United States and workers were paid very little to salvage valuable materials using crude tools with virtually no protection.

While young peasants - many of them from neighbouring provinces including Jiangxi - stripped the electronic items for metal wires and simple devices, teenagers played nearby, not knowing the hazards involved.

The report said many inhabitants suffered respiratory illnesses, skin infections and stomach diseases as a result.

Wang Ji, who is in charge of controlling pollution from solid waste and toxic chemicals under the State Environmental Protection Administration, said in Beijing yesterday that the problem in China was that many unlicensed workshops with poor facilities engaged in the "recycling" work.

She said many of these workshops simply failed to meet China's "strict standards of processing waste materials".

She said law-enforcement departments would close these illegal, polluting businesses and crack down on the smuggling of such waste into China. She also made an indirect criticism of the US, saying "certaincountries should strengthen control over the export" of this waste.

Ms Wang complained that although an international treaty on the export of dangerous waste was widely accepted internationally, many developing nations run the risk of becoming the dumping ground of rich countries.

According to the February environmental report, unwanted hardware from the US frequently finds its way to recycling shops in China, India and Pakistan. The report alleged that dumping overseas was far cheaper for US firms than disposing of the waste domestically.

Published in the South China Morning Post. Copyright © 2002. All rights reserved.