The global proliferation of green technologies, including electric bicycles and solar panels, has been touted as good environmental news, but it also has some nasty side-effects.
Lead batteries create potentially serious disposal hazards, particularly in developing Asian countries, according to University of Tennessee engineering professor Chris Cherry.
Cherry’s recent study of lead issues related to the solar industry, co-authored by Perry Gottesfeld of Occupational Knowledge International in San Francisco, appeared in the September issue of the journal Energy Policy.
‘Nobody’s talking about the lead pollution problems that occur and the public health problems that occur from lead pollution,’ says Cherry, whose research examined potential lead pollution in China and India. ‘Their take-back systems and recycling systems are not up to Western standards, so to speak. That’s what got me interested in lead emissions.’
Lead can cause serious health consequences, including damage to the central nervous system, the kidneys, the cardiovascular system and the reproductive system. Lead is particularly damaging to children’s developing minds, and is associated with learning impairments and behavior problems.
India and China have touted solar expansion plans, even as stories have emerged on lead poisoning cases in China that highlight the nation’s lack of governmental controls on disposal and recycling of lead batteries, Cherry says.
In the United States, government guidelines and an industry-led take-back and recycling system have greatly reduced potential public exposure and have introduced strict controls within the manufacturing plants that process batteries.
By contrast, he says, ‘If you live next to a lead factory in China your kid probably has a 50/50 chance of being lead poisoned.’ China recently closed 584 lead handling plants in the wake of negative publicity.
Over the past decade, electric bicycles have been a growing culprit in lead pollution overseas.
‘Ten years ago electric bikes didn’t exist in China, and now they are a huge portion of the lead demand,’ Cherry says. ‘They require a car-sized battery each every year or two.’
Solar technology is a more recent phenomenon, and Cherry and Gottesfeld conducted their most recent research in hopes of creating awareness before the problem escalates. Because of infrastructure limitations in developing countries, it is anticipated they will rely heavily on lead batteries to store power produced by solar panels.
The study predicts lead pollution from these projected solar investments will reach one-third of the current global demand for lead. China loses 33 percent of lead in the mining, smelting, manufacturing and recycling process, and India experiences 22 percent loss over its life cycle, according to the research.
As green technology usage grows in the U.S., this country also could contribute to the problem, similar to the way Western nations have dumped toxic computer components in Asian recyclers — an issue Cherry has also studied.
‘There’s a lot of imported and exported used lead batteries,’ he says. ‘There is a lot of lead that moves around the global economy.’
Stricter government regulations are necessary, and OK International is also working with industry to motivate change. For example, one promising program would provide ‘eco-labels’ for batteries with proper procedures for manufacture and disposal, and the organization is working to get commitments from bike manufacturers to only use these batteries.
Green technologies pose problems for other developing nations as well, Cherry says. His work has focused primarily on India and China because data is more readily available, but solar, for example, poses an even greater threat for nations with less infrastructure to deal with its toxic leftovers.
‘Africa’s lead recycling and take-back and manufacturing is way worse than Asia even is,’ he says. ‘There’s almost no infrastructure to deal with most of that kind of stuff. Is the benefit of electricity worth the cost in lead-poisoned children?’
