E-waste health risk

assessment
Nilima Main, VIT
 • Apply the knowledge about E-
waste management in routine
daily life to minimize the
hazards.

CO5

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Characterizing
WEEE
• Inorganic chemicals- Lead,
Mercury, Cadmium, Arsenic,
Beryllium, Silver

• Organic- PCBs (polychlorinated

biphenyls), Flame retardants,
etc.

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 Routes of exposure
• Lungs (through inhalation of dusts, metal fumes and
vapors)

• Skin (Through contact with dusts)

• Mouth (by ingestion)

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Potential exposure media

Air Soil/dust Water

Sediments biota/food
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Health effects of Arsenic exposure

• Skin, bladder, kidney and liver cancer when ingested

• Lung cancer when inhaled
• Peripheral vascular disease
• Cerebrovascular disease
• Cardiovascular disease
• Diabetes (long term exposure)
• Adverse pregnancy outcomes

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Effects of Cadmium exposure

Osteoporosis in women
Height loss in men
Kidney damage
Elevated BP
Cardiovascular diseases
Itai-Itai disease
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 Effects of
Mercury
exposure
• Minamata disease
in Japan
• Water
contamination
around mines, in
California

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 Effects of Lead exposure

Serious Central Nervous

Lead poisoning is one of
System (CNS) effects and
the most common
other adverse health
environmental pediatric
consequences occur even
health problems in the
when ingested at low
United States
levels
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 Effects of Hexavalent
Chromium exposure
• Digestive problems and damage to organs such as kidney
and liver when ingested
• Produces skin ulcers when applied to the skin
• Inhaling Chromium (VI) in high concentrations may cause
respiratory problems, for examples, nose
bleeds, perforation of the nasal septum and runny nose

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 Chronic Beryllium Disease (CBD)

Granulomas at Anorexia, fever,

multiple organ weight loss and
sites night sweats
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Effects of Copper exposure

Concentrated amounts
Respiratory effects Very high levels are
can produce
from dust include known to cause liver
respiratory and
irritation of the damage, renal damage
gastrointestinal
respiratory tract and death
disturbances

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 Zinc exposure
• Consumption of large quantities is associated
with gastrointestinal problems such as stomach
cramps, nausea and vomiting
• Zinc also can cause anemia and damage to the
pancreas
• Breathing high concentrations of zinc in the
workplace causes a disease known as metal fume
fever. This condition appears to be an immune-
mediated response that originates in the lungs

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 • This silver-white metal is used widely in food
and beverage containers, in pots and pans
and in construction sites.
Aluminum • An ingredient in various medicines and
cosmetics, for example buffered aspirin and
exposure antiperspirants
• Concern about possible association with
Alzheimer's disease

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CERCLA Priority list of Hazardous Substances
• The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATDR) has identified a list
of the 20 hazardous substances, known as the CERCLA Priority List of Hazardous
Substances

• This list is revised every two years

(CERCLA- The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability

Act)

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 Characteristics of Hazardous Substances on the
CERCLA Priority List
• Pose the most significant potential threat to human health because they:
a. Have known or suspected toxicity &
b. Have potential for human exposure

• A substance can be on the list if there is a high frequency of occurrence and

potential for human exposure even if it is not among the most toxic
substances

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Top 20 Hazardous Substances from the 2021
CERCLA Priority List of Hazardous Substances
1 Arsenic 11 Chloroform
2 Lead 12 Aroclor 1260
3 Mercury 13 Ddt, P,p’-
4 Vinyl Chloride 14 Aroclor 1254
5 Polychlorinated Biphenyls 15 Dibenzo(a,h)anthracene
6 Benzene 16 Trichloroethylene
7 Cadmium 17 Chromium, Hexavalent
8 Benzo(a)pyrene 18 Dieldrin
9 Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons 19 Phosphorus, White
10 Benzo(b)fluoranthene 20 Aroclor 1242
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 Introduction to Risk assessment
• It is the gathering of data used to relate response to dose

• Risk management is the process of decision making i.e. ,

how to allocate national resources to protect public health
and the environment

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 Hazard
Identification

Risk
assessment is Dose response Exposure
4 steps assessment assessment

process
Risk
characterization
Risk
Management
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 5

Basic definitions
• Hazard identification is a process of determining whether or
not a particular chemical is casually linked to particular health
effects such as cancer or birth defects

• Dose response assessment is the process of characterizing

the relationship between dose of an agent administered or
received and the incidence of an adverse health effect

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 Basic definitions
• Exposure assessment involves determining the size and
nature of the population that has exposed as well as length of
the time and toxicant concentration

• Risk characterization is the integration of the above three

steps and determination of the magnitude of public health
problem

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 Two species of rodents must be
tested

Minimum At least 50 male and 50 female of

test each species tested
requirements
At least two doses must be
administered with a no dose
control
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Human studies
• Data obtained from animal testing methods difficult to interpret for humans

• Some substance causes tumor to rat may not cause tumor in humans

• By attempting to find, correlation between disease rates and various

environmental factors, a quantitative relationship between exposure and risk can
be developed

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Parameter for determining exposure and
disease With disease Without disease
Exposed a b
Not Exposed c d

• The attributable risk is the

difference between the odds of
having disease with the exposure
and odds of having disease Concepts:
without exposure
• Odds ratio is similar to relative Relative risk
risk. Number above 1.0 suggests Attributable risk
a relationship between exposure Odds ratio
and risks.
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 • An evaluation of personal records of employees of a
plant that manufactures vinyl chloride finds that,
out of 200 workers, 15 developed liver cancer. A
control group consisting of individuals with smoking
history similar to the exposed workers and who are
unlikely to have encountered vinyl chloride had 24
Numerical with liver cancer and 450 who did not develop liver
cancer. Find the relative risk, attributable risk and
problem odds ratio for this data.

• Relative risk= 1.48

• Attributable risk= 0.024
• Odds ratio= 1.52

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 • Suppose 5% of individuals exposed to a
Numerical for chemical get a tumor and 2% of those who
were not exposed get the same kind of
practice tumor. Find a) Relative risk, b) attributable
risk, c) odds ratio

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 • Harmful effects of various heavy metals present
in E-waste
Concepts to • 4 steps of E-waste assessment
prepare
• Problems based on Risk calculation.

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