Child Labour in Photos: Electronic Waste

Note: The photos in this post are strictly for editorial/education purposes. Do not copy or share without my permission. All taken at Agbogbloshie in Accra, Ghana, the exploratory photos below offer insights into hazardous child labour and e-waste. Hazardous Child Labour Left to right: Ankrah, 14, Osei, 15, and Mustafa, 13, dismantle old CRT TVs with bare hands and rocks to recover the iron metals inside. This exposed them to heavy metals, including lead and cadmium. Approximately 31.5 million children in Africa are in child labour, the ILO statistics show. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant Informal disposal and recycling of end-of-life electronics (e-waste ) may be poisoning a generation of young people living on the margins of Accra, the capital of Ghana. The scenes in this post are uncomfortable peek into their everyday urban life. Kwadwo, 9, recovers iron from CRT-TVs on a CRT glass-strewn dumpsite. Copyright © Muntaka Chasant For food and the expectation to contribute to their household economy, they use their bare hands to cannibalize discarded e-waste for metals. They also sift through the dirt — using their fingers — to retrieve small pieces of metals buried under heavy metals-polluted soil. This exposes them to heavy metals, including lead, mercury, and cadmium. Ezekiel, 12, carries an old CRT TV on his head, which he will shortly use a hammer to take apart. Copyright © Muntaka Chasant A study in 2013 found lead levels as high as 18,125 parts per million (ppm) in one of the soil samples collected from around Agbogbloshie.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290519876_Exploratory_Health_Assessment_of_Chemical_Exposures_at_E-Waste_Recycling_and_Scrapyard_Facility_in_Ghana US EPA's recommended safe limits for lead in bare soil in children's play areas is 400 (parts per million) ppm and 1200 ppm for non-play areas.https://www.epa.gov/lead/hazard-standards-lead-paint-dust-and-soil-tsca-section-403 The Basel Action Network and the International Pollutants Elimination Network also found the highest levels of brominated and chlorinated dioxins ever measured in free-range chicken eggs in Agbogbloshie in a 2019 studyhttps://www.ban.org/news/2019/4/24/rotten-eggs-e-waste-from-europe-poisons-ghanas-food-chain, fearing this may be contaminating Ghana's food chain. Copyright © Muntaka Chasant The children engaged in hazardous child labour in this post are part of thousands of people who toil in the toxic environment at Agbogbloshie every day trying to salvage usable materials from the waste stream. Kristen Grant and other researchers in a 2013 study published in The Lancet Global Healthhttps://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(13)70101-3/fulltext examined — 23 epidemiological studies — the association between exposure to e-waste and health outcomes from 1965 to 2012 in southeast China. They found outcomes associated with exposure to e-waste including reduced lung function, changes in cellular expression and function, stillbirths, miscarriage, and evidence of DNA damage. What is Going on in the Photographs? #half Debrah, 15, has just smashed an old CRT TV against a rock to reclaim the iron materials inside. A piece of CRT glass stuck in his hair fell past his left eye, overshadowing it. Debrah is already blind in the left eye and wears a prosthetic. More than 60% of children in hazardous work worldwide are boys, according to ILO estimates. © Muntaka Chasant#half Debrah, 15, is about to smash an old CRT TV against a rock to reclaim the iron materials inside. This exposed Debrah and the others to heavy metals, including lead, cadmium, mercury, and barium. They are also frequently injured by CRT glass. More than 60% of children in hazardous work worldwide are boys, according to ILO estimates. © Muntaka Chasant There's no doubt some end-of-life e-waste still make their way into Ghana, with some ending up at Agbogbloshie. But a significant chunk of the end-of-life e-waste ending up at Agbogbloshie is locally generated. For me, where the e-waste is generated and how and where it is recycled is absolutely important. Not so much for where it was made. We can make the same argument for cars, leather shoes, and toothbrushes. Sequestered on the fringes, urban poor children face severe exclusion and misery. Not even basic services such as safe water, adequate sanitation, and health care reach them. Copyright © Muntaka Chasant The Basel Convention allows for repair and reuse. A sizable number of the e-waste that makes their way into Ghana are repaired and reused. Not all Ghanaian households — with roughly around $2200 GDP per capita — can afford brand new LG or Samsung LED TVs. There's a large market for e-waste in Ghana. For instance, some of the end-of-life cathode-ray tube (CRT) TVs and computer monitors on this page had been in Ghana for decades. They had been used by local households and businesses and had added value to the local economy before being cannibalized at Agbogbloshie. Itinerant collectors pay a small fee for them from households and repair shops throughout Ghana. The collectors sell their goods to scrap dealers inside the Agbogbloshie Scrapyard and other places. For the old CRT TVs, the interior parts are 'mined' for valuable components, including circuit boards and cables. Copyright © Muntaka Chasant The lead-filled CRT funnel glasses part are then discarded on nearby e-waste dumpsites or left around for the children to pick up. These glasses are a waste for the scrap dealers. But for the urban poor children, the iron materials inside are a source of instant cash. These once symbols of high-quality engineering are smashed against rocks and repeatedly hit with stones for the shadow mask and aperture grille (Sony Trinitron). CRTs from old TVs and computer screens contain dangerous levels of toxic materials, including leadhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878029616001213, barium, and cadmium (in the phosphors)https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25776743 https://www.americanelements.com/cadmium-metal-7440-43-9, and are known to pose risks to human health and the environment. #half Copyright © Muntaka Chasant#half Copyright © Muntaka Chasant CRT funnel glass contains around 22% of lead by weighthttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921344913001419 https://giecdn.blob.core.windows.net/fileuploads/file/an%20analysis%20of%20the%20demand%20for%20crt%20glass%20processing%20in%20the%20u%20s.pdf. Their recycling is heavily regulated in many countries, including the UShttps://www.epa.gov/hw/frequent-questions-about-regulation-used-cathode-ray-tubes-crts-and-crt-glass, where several States prohibit their disposal in municipal waste landfillshttps://www.ecycleclearinghouse.org/DocRepository/rptLandfillBans.pdf. How Young People at Agbogbloshie Reclaim Iron Materials From Old CRT TVs #half Osei, 15, uses a rock to break apart an old CRT TV to recover the iron inside, which was sold for around $0.15 per kilo. © Muntaka Chasant#half Frequently injured by the glass, this exposed Osei to toxic materials, including lead, cadmium, and barium. © Muntaka ChasantCopyright © Muntaka Chasant Weighing and Selling Osei and Mustafa weigh their goods. © 2020 Muntaka ChasantOsei and Mustafa smile and display how much they have earned for the morning. They sold the precious metals for around $0.15 per kilo at Agbogbloshie earning them GH₵10 each (around $1.74 in 2020). They were exposed to heavy metals, including lead, cadmium, and barium. Around 152 million children worldwide are victims of child labour, with 73 million engaged in hazardous work, the ILO statistics show. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant Mustafa and Osei's haul weighed 24 kg. Iron scrap sold at GH₵0.80 (around $0.15) per kilo in May 2020 at Agbogbloshie. Approximated, they made GH₵20 in total (around $3.45). Each took GH₵10 ($1.7) for the day's work. Yes, that's all they got for the risk and exposure to lead and other heavy metals. But Osei and Mustafa are happy. The $1.7 should get them some food and new sets of clothes for the day. They might even keep a change for their urban poor parents. Here's a puzzle for you: The iron materials now begin their journey. Where do you think they are headed? © 2020 Muntaka Chasant