Subject: Petrie dish Guiyu in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong was identified as a key reprocessing location, with 100,000 migrant workers employed breaking up obsolete computers. "The operations involve men, women and children toiling under primitive conditions, often unaware of the health and environmental hazards involved in operations that include open burning of plastics and wires, riverbank acid works to extract gold, and burning of toxic soldered circuit boards," the report says. "Already the pollution has become so devastating that well water is no longer drinkable." The report says Australia and Europe are signatories to the Basel Convention on hazardous waste, but the US is not. US legislation allows exports of hazardous wastes, provided they are recycled. The Australian Government has accused the US of allowing a loophole for "sham" recycling operations that dump most of the waste. Environment Australia - the government agency that controls waste exports - has not received any applications for the export of technology waste since 1997. After dumping incidents in the Philippines in 1993 and in Hong Kong in 1997, Australia had cracked down on technology waste, Greenpeace toxics campaigner Matt Ruchel said. More info from Beijing, China RSA Security Inc Suite 623, Office Building 2, Beijing Bright China Chang An Building, No 7, Jianguomen Nei Dajie Dongcheng District, Beijing, China Postcode: 100005 Tel: + 86-10-65187838 Fax: +86-10-65187837 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Shanghai, China RSA Security Inc RM 2401 Shanghai Time Square 93 Middle Huai Hai Road Shanghai 200021 China Tel: + 86 21 63910210-3 Fax: + 86 21 63910212 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
