|
Greenpeace has just come out with a new report examining the environmental friendliness of the three leading game consoles – and all of them tested positive for various hazardous chemicals. The analysis, published in Playing Dirty, detected the use of hazardous chemicals and materials such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), phthalates, beryllium and bromine indicative of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in Nintendo’s Wii, Sony’s PlayStation 3 Elite, and Microsoft’s Xbox 360.
With the game consoles market one of the fastest growing in consumer electronics – over 60 million game consoles have been sold, with a 14 percent growth over the last year – manufacturers need to start using technology (which is already available) to design out harmful toxics and produce cleaner gaming systems.
Greenpeace also mentions that game consoles contribute towards the fastest growing type of waste – ewaste – and are often dumped when the next generation machine is released, ending up in unsafe and dirty recycling yards in developing countries, where toxic contents harm both the environment and the health of workers.
Greenpeace do however, mention that each manufacturer had avoided or reduced uses of individual hazardous substances in certain materials within their consoles. For example, the Nintendo Wii managed quite well without using beryllium in its electrical contacts, and use of PVC and phthalates was limited. The PlayStation 3, meanwhile, included “bromine-free” circuit boards and the Xbox 360 used fewer brominated materials in its housing materials.
|
Visitor
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
Wow. I read in the report what some of these chemicals can cause. Impaired learning, abnormal sexual development????
Visitor
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
Visitor
Friday, 10 October 2008
...Awkward
