Silica and Silicon Chips

1
Silica and Silicon Chips Cradle to Grave Zack
Kahn Race, Poverty and the Environment Professor
Raquel R. Pinderhughes Urban Studies Program San
Francisco State University Spring 2003 Public
has permission to use the material herein, but
only if author, course, university and professor
are credited
2
Silica Silicon Chips

• This presentation is designed to describe the
  cradle to grave lifecycle of silica used in
  silicon chips, paying particular attention to the
  social, environmental and human health impacts of
  the processes associated with silica and silicon
  chips.

3
Silica Silicon Chips

• In this presentation, you will study
• Extraction of silica
• The production of silicon chips
• Use of the electronics products silicon chips are
  found in
• Transportation involved throughout the entire
  lifecycle of silica and silicon chips
• Disposal of these products containing silicon
  chips after they are no longer useful
• Either go through the presentation page by page
  or use the links in the side bar to jump to
  various sections that interest you

4
What are silicon chips?

• Also known as silicon wafers, integrated
  circuits, microchips, or semiconductors
• Developed in 1958 by John Kirby of Texas
  Instruments to make televisions and radios
  smaller and cheaper by replacing electrical
  circuits made from many separate parts with
  electrical circuits made out of one piece of
  silicon.

5
What have they done?

• transformed room-sized computers into todays
  laptops and led to many other inventions from
  mobile telephones and bar code scanners to video
  games and the Internet (Chorlton, 2002).
• Click the products button on the left if you want
  to see more products made possible by silicon
  chips.

6
What is silica?

• Silicon Dioxide (SiO2)
• A mineral found in quartz, sand, rock, crystal,
  flint, jasper, and opal.
• High quality silica is a critical component of
  silicon chips and is mostly found in quartz.
• Different from lower grade silica used in glass
  bottles, lubricants for mechanical tools,
  concrete and bricks, and silicone implants

7
Why is this presentation important?

• Economic scale of semiconductor industry 140
  billion in 2000 with an average 16 growth per
  year over the past few decades (Williams et al.,
  2002).
• Horrifying social, environmental, and human
  health impacts at almost every level silica
  extraction, silicon chip production,
  transportation, and disposal of products
  containing silicon chips.

8
EXTRACTION

• In this section you will study environmental,
  human health, and social impacts associated with
  the mining and smelting of silica
• Impacts to mine site
• Silicosis
• Case Study Omaruru
• Water
• Smelting
• Criticism of project

9
Mining of silica

• Most mines are open-cut as opposed to underground
  mines. Open cut mines involve digging a pit on
  the surface of the earth, while underground mines
  involve tunneling into the earth.

An open cut mine.
10
Impacts to mine site

• All soil, vegetation, and rock removed from site
• drilling and blasting, loading into trucks with
  excavators or large mechanical shovels and
  draglines, and trucking to surface stockpile
  areas or directly to plants (Tasmania Public Land
  Use Commission TPLUC, 1996).
• Land becomes useless for previous users people,
  animals and plants

11
Other impacts silicosis

• Silicosis is a disabling lung disease caused by
  overexposure to respirable crystalline silica.
  When workers inhale crystalline silica, the lung
  tissue reacts by developing fibrotic nodules
  around the trapped silica particles, making it
  difficult to breathe. Overexposure to dust that
  contains microscopic particles of crystalline
  silica can cause scar tissue to form in the
  lungs, which reduces their ability to extract
  oxygen from air breathed.

12
Silicosis (1)

• The effects of continually breathing respirable
  silica dusts are both cumulative and progressive.
  Acute silicosis occurs where airborne exposures
  are the highest symptoms can develop within a
  few weeks or months. Development of chronic
  silicosis, the most common form, occurs over a
  period of years and often goes undetected. As the
  disease progresses, the following symptoms may be
  present shortness of breath following physical
  exertion, severe cough, fatigue, loss of
  appetite, chest pains and fever. Silica exposure
  may also impair the ability to fight infections,
  which makes one more susceptible to certain
  illnesses, such as tuberculosis.

13
Silicosis (2)

• In December 1996, the International Agency for
  Research on Cancer upgraded the classification of
  crystalline silica to carcinogenic to humans
  (Group 1) based on a relatively large number of
  recent epidemiological studies. This
  classification is based on inhalation of dust in
  the form of quartz or cristobalite (Mahoney,
  1999).

14
Silicosis whom it affects

• Affects not only those who enter the mine site,
  but those who live and work near the mine site
• Worldwide, more than 1 million workers are
  exposed to crystalline silica, which is known to
  cause silicosis (Mahoney, 1999).
• U.S. More than 250 workers die due to silicosis
  each year
• We can assume that because worker safety
  standards in the United States are generally
  higher than those of nations with lower Gross
  Domestic Products (GDPs), that the rate of death
  due to silicosis among workers is higher in those
  countries.
• Approximately 3.4 per 10,000 workers experience
  respiratory illness from occupational exposure to
  dusts, including silica dust. Most are mining
  workers.
• There are many methods for controlling exposure,
  however, they are either not implemented or not
  effective enough since people are still diagnosed
  with silicosis

15
Case study Omaruru, Namibia
16
Water supply in Omaruru

• The main use for water for the mine will be for
  spraying onto mines are stockpiles, which is the
  primary method for reducing silica dust that
  causes silicosis
• The Omaruru River provides water for the town of
  Omaruru and other communities downstream.
• Because water is limited in Omaruru, Namibian
  Metals, the company creating the project, is
  exploring the option of using sewage water.
• Sewage water contains many disease-spreading
  elements, which will further contaminate the
  ground water supply that feeds the Omaruru River

17
Importance of water (1)

• Humans rely on it
• Drinking
• Crop irrigation
• Cooking
• Cleaning
• Livestock
• Plant animal habitats rely on it
• Water is a connected system. If there is
  pollution in one area, it will likely spread to
  another area both in surface water and in
  underground aquifers.

18
Importance of water (2)

• Decrease in water quality and quantity lead to
  many hardships for people, such as
• Having to use water from distant locations
• Allowing livestock to die
• Facing poorer nutrition due to the inability to
  grow crops
• Diseases from drinking contaminated water

19
Water contamination from mining

• Siltation of waterways results from
• Spraying of water onto mines and stockpiles to
  control silica dust
• Erosion of exposed surfaces
• Pumping of water from mines
• Rainwater movement through stockpiles

Acid mine drainage

• Also, acid mine drainage results when rain
  water and
• ground water passthrough mine workings and
• become acidified due to the leaching of
  exposed sulfides
• (TPLUC, 1996).

20
Smelting

• Extracts the metal from everything that will not
  be used later in the production process and
  happens after mining
• Uses excessive amounts of heat, which in the case
  of the Omaruru project will be produced from
  charcoal.
• To reach Namibian Metals goal of 20,000 tons per
  year of high-grade silicon, the smelter will
  require 25,000 tons of charcoal per annum, which
  will be produced in retorts a vessel or chamber
  in which ssubstances are distilled or decomposed
  by heat (Merriam-Webster, 2002) supplied by the
  Belgium company, Lambiotte (Graig, 2001).
• Concerns of environmentalists include
• Environmental soundness of harvesting 400 tons of
  charcoal and wood chips from the region on a
  daily basis over the projected 20-year lifetime
  of the project
• Greenhouse gas emissions from the smelter

21
Smelting is power intensive

• With the erection of NamPowers new N1 billion
  400kV Interconnector, the Namibian electricity
  provider was able to sign an agreement with South
  Africas power utility, Eskom, to supply Namibia
  Metals with 38mega-watt for the running of the
  smelters. NamPower will supply the two smelters
  from the Omaruru substation, which is 3km away
  from the intended site (Graig 2001).
• Precise environmental, social, and human health
  impacts of NamPowers new 1 billion 400kV
  Interconnector and extraction and use of
  charcoal are not within the scope of this paper.
  However, it is known that power plants and
  electricity have highly negative impacts on
  people and the environment and in this case,
  Namibian Metals is a major user of the
  electricity from the new power plant.

22
Criticism of the project

• Omaruru citizens have criticized this project
  because, like many other such resource
  exploitation projects in the developing world,
  Namibia will be stuck with the negative
  long-term effects while the first world happily
  buys the safe and clean end product.
• Namibian Metals is promoting the project by
  pointing out the jobs that will be created, but
  the people of Omaruru have expressed very little
  desire for new jobs and only expressed concern
  over their health and environment.
• The project will most likely lead to degradation
  of water supply, destruction of bosky lands, and
  cases of silicosis for residents and workers

23
PRODUCTION of silicon chips

• In this section you will study environmental,
  human health, and social impacts associated with
  the production of silicon chips
• Chip fabrication industry overview
• Inputs, wastes, and pollutants
• Working conditions and consequences
• Other damages

24
Chip fabrication industry (1)

• High grade silica used
• Different from lower grade silica used in glass
  bottles, lubricants for mechanical tools,
  concrete and bricks, and silicone implants
• Referred to as silicon chip fabrication,
  semiconductor fabrication, or wafer fabrication

• It is the construction of a rectangular
  die, a highly
• intricate set of patterned layers of doped
  silicon, insulators
• and metals that forms the functional heart of
  a microchip
• (Williams, Ayres, Heller, 2002).

25
Chip fabrication industry (2)

• Chip fabrication takes place worldwide.
• The chip fabrication plants I discuss in this
  presentation are located in the United States.
• Plants are now emerging in many other countries,
  such as Isreal, India, Ireland, Russia, and China
  (Parthasarathy, 2002).
• Remember that as with most other industries,
  operations in countries with lower GDPs are more
  damaging to workers an the environment than
  operations in countries with higher GDPs.

26
Chip fabrication Industry (3)

• The chip fabrication industry has an incredible
  amount influence and power.
• At the end of each year, when the Bureau of
  Labor Statistics releases the results of its
  survey on occupational health and safety, the
  Semiconductor Industry Association, which calls
  itself the leading voice for the semiconductor
  industry, and whose member companies constitute
  more than 90 percent of U.S.-based semiconductor
  production, issues a press release announcing
  that the industry ranks among the safest
  manufacturing industries in the nation (Fisher,
  2001).
• As you will see from the following slides, the
  semiconductor industry is highly damaging to the
  environment and human health

27
Inputs cause significant damage (1)

• According to Williams et al. (2002),
• Microchips themselves are small, valuable
  and have a wide variety of applications, which
  naively suggests that they deliver large benefits
  to society with negligible environmental impact.
  On the other hand, the semiconductor industry
  uses hundreds, even thousands of chemicals, many
  in significant quantities and many of them toxic.
  Emissions of these chemicals have potential
  impact on air, water and soil systems and
  potentially pose an occupational risk for line
  workers.

28
Inputs cause significant damage (2)

• Although products contained in a silicon chip are
  not highly polluting, due to a chips nature of
  requiring high amounts of inputs of energy and
  chemicals during creation, its life cycle creates
  high amounts of pollution

29
Inputs Required (1)

• According to Williams et al. (2002), to make the
  average 2-gram microchip
• 1600 grams of fossil fuels and 72 grams of
  chemicals necessary
• Indicates that the environmental weight of
  semiconductors far exceeds their small size.
• The reason for the extraordinarily high amount of
  inputs is that Microchips and many other
  high-tech goods are extremely low-entropy, highly
  organized forms of matter. Given that they are
  fabricated using relatively high entropy starting
  materials, it is natural to expect that a
  substantial investment of energy and process
  materials is needed for the transformation into
  an organized form.

30
Inputs required (2)

• According to (Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition
  SVTC, 1997), one six-inch wafer requires the
  following inputs
• 3,200 cubic feet of bulk gases,
• 22 cubic feet of hazardous gases,
• 2,275 gallons of deionized water,
• 20 pounds of chemicals, and
• 285 kilowatt hours of electrical power

31
Wastes produced

• According to (SVTC, 1997), one six-inch wafer
  produces the following wastes
• 25 pounds of sodium hydroxide
• 2,840 gallons of waste water
• 7 pounds of miscellaneous hazardous wastes

32
Pollutants released into air
According to (SVTC, 1997), one six-inch wafer
releases the following pollutants into the air

• Acid fumes
• Volatile organic compounds
• Toxic gases, including arsine
• Deionized water
• Solvents
• Alkaline cleaning solutions
• Acids
• Photo resists
• Aqueous metals
• Waste etchants

• Waste aqueous developing solutions
• Waste aqeuous metals
• chromium

33
Significance (1)

• You can see from the preceding slides that a
  significant amount of inputs is required. To
  illustrate, I would like to draw your attention
  to two inputs that we can all relate to water
  and electricity. 2,275 gallons of water are
  needed to create one microchip, which is about
  the amount of water the average American consumes
  in two weeks (Archer Turner, 1997). 285
  kilowatt hours of electrical power are needed to
  create one microchip, which is more than the
  amount of electricity the average American
  household consumes in one week (Energy
  Information Administration, 2003).

34
Significance (2)

• We now see that there are a significant amount of
  inputs, but how do we understand their impacts?
  Dirty secrets of the chip making industry
  published in USA Today, Jan 12, 1998 describes
  the chemicals used in chip making.
• Some chemicals are suspected carcinogens and
  reproductive toxins. Others, such as hydrogen
  fluoride, a colorless liquid or gas, are so
  strong that they can cause severe burns deep
  beneath the skin. Arsine gas is the most toxic
  and attacks red blood cells. A leaking cylinder
  in a typical living room would be lethal with one
  whiff. Phosphine gas, also toxic, destroys lung
  tissue. Silane gas ignites on contact with air
  and has engulfed workers in flames.
• When you consider that Intels Rio Rancho, New
  Mexico facility can process 5,000 eight-inch
  silicon wafers in a single week, the
  environmental costs are staggering (SVTC, 1997).

35
Significance (3)

• What is even more frightening is that the
  consequences from exposure to many of the inputs,
  wastes, and pollutants in unknown, or if it is
  known is kept secret from the public.
• The following slides illustrate the results of
  poor working conditions and the impacts to
  workers. However, in many cases, it is uncertain
  which inputs, wastes, or pollutants are
  responsible for the damage.

36
Working conditions

• The employees work inside low-story buildings in
  clean rooms that are so free of dust that even
  hospital operating rooms are dirty by comparison.
  Workers wear head-to-toe suites not to protect
  themselves but to keep their skin flakes, breath,
  and hair from contaminating the valuable chips
  (Dirty secrets, 1998).

37
The head-to-toe suits

• The suits are deplorably inadequate to protect
  workers against skin contact with the acids,
  solvents and other chemicals they use as a daily
  part of their job. Even worse, most clean-room
  ventilation systems are designed to recirculate
  the majority of the air used in the workplace, so
  as to prevent new infusions of airborne dustin
  effect, workers are breathing the same chemically
  suffused air over and over again throughout the
  workday (Fisher, 2001).

38
Why conditions are so bad

• Corporate management has stated that if they did
  everything that has been recommended to them,
  they would be out of business (James Cochran,
  now a safety manager for Phillips Semiconductor
  in Dirty secrets, 1998)
• Those in the business of silicon chip fabrication
  have said that they care more about turning out a
  quality product and making a profit that
  protecting their employees from the chemicals
  previously mentioned and the problems that result
  when they come in contact with those chemicals.

39
Accidents are common (1)

• A toxic yellow-brown cloud rose from the floor
  at a Teccor Electronics computer chip plant in
  Irving, Texas. Acids had leaked from a faulty
  pump onto silicon wafers littering the floor. The
  reaction created the dangerous fumes.
• Three employees, dizzy and struggling to
  breathe, wound up in the hospital. For weeks,
  they suffered respiratory problems. Teccor
  President Al Lapierre says employees needlessly
  stuck their noses in the fumes.
• But federal investigators saw another problem
  that day in 1995. Safety was secondary to
  production wrote an investigator for the
  Occupational Safety and health Administration
  (OSHA), which governs workplace practices.
• continued

40
Accidents are common (2)

• Supervisors knew the floor was dirty but did not
  clean it because they would have had to close the
  plant for several days, OSHA said (Dirty
  secrets, 1998).
• That the electronics industry is a clean one is
  completely false
• When dealing with such dangerous chemicals, minor
  mistakes or problems, such as mixing the wrong
  chemicals or a leaking hazardous waste drum,
  often lead to major disasters.

41
Results of working conditions (1)

• Cancer
• Miscarriages
• Birth defects
• Other health problems

42
Results of working conditions (2)

• Former IBM workers Michael Ruffing and Faye
  Calton are the parents of Zachary Ruffing, 15,
  who was born blind and with facial deformities so
  severe he cannot breathe through his mouth or
  nose. They originally sued for 40 million in
  damages. Other IBM cases name cancers of the
  gastrointestinal and lymphatic systems of the
  skin, bone and brain and, most commonly, of the
  breast and testes. The cases filed by employees
  of another plant reflect a similar suite of
  cancers, the majority of whichlike the cancers
  listed abovehave all shown increased rates over
  the past 20 years (Fisher 2001).

43
Results of working conditions (3)

• According to a study cited in the Fisher article,
  U.S. IBM workers of five or more years between
  1975 and 1989 were 2.5 times more likely to die
  of primary brain cancer than the general
  population.
• According to the Dirty Secrets article,
  semiconductor workers have a 29 higher rate of
  exposure to chemicals that resulted in lost work
  days than did all manufacturing workers in 1995.
• Studies also have shown higher rates of
  respiratory problems, dermatitis, and
  miscarriages among chip workers than other
  manufacturing workers.
• Very little other research is available because
  so many chemicals are used in microchip
  fabrication and so little is known about them
  that it is difficult to discover exactly which
  chemicals are causing which problems.

44
Why conditions dont improve

• Employees often think that their health problems
  are not work-related because they may not relate
  their health problem to their work due to company
  doctors and management telling them that their
  workplaces are safe.
• Often, they do not tell officials of their
  working conditions because they fear losing their
  jobs.
• However, Alida Hernandez, a former IBM employee
  interviewed in the Fisher article has talked
  about her breast cancer. She has no family
  history of breast cancer and at the time of
  her departure, two of her immediate colleagues
  had fallen ill. One female engineer was on a
  leave of absence as a result of breast cancer,
  and the employee who had trained Hernandez on
  disk-coating operations came down with skin
  cancer. Another colleague suffered a
  miscarriage. The article contains many others
  with stories similar to Hernandez.

45
Damages to surrounding area (1)

• Workers are not the only ones who suffer from the
  chip fabrication industry.
• The environment surrounding the silicon ship
  fabrication plants and those who depend on that
  environment have suffered in the past as
  explained in the following slide

46
Damage to surrounding area (2)

• Built just three years after the disk drive was
  invented at IBM ARC in 1956, the Cottle Road
  plant was the first among dozens of manufacturing
  facilities -- including those operated by Intel,
  Hewlett-Packard, Applied Materials and National
  Semiconductor -- discovered in the early 1980s to
  have collectively leaked tens of thousands of
  gallons of organic solvents and other toxic
  contaminants into the groundwater of Silicon
  Valley. Today, the valley is home to more EPA
  Superfund sites (29) than any other county in the
  nation, with the most notorious of those sites --
  from a leaking tank at a Fairchild Semiconductor
  fabrication plant -- poisoning a well that served
  the south San Jose neighborhood of Los Paseos. A
  subsequent study by the state's Department of
  Health Services found 2.5 to three times the
  expected rate of miscarriages and birth defects
  among pregnant women exposed to the contaminated
  drinking water, leading to a lawsuit and
  multimillion-dollar settlement in 1986 with over
  250 claimants (Fisher, 2001).

47
Other damages?

• The chip fabrication industry has apparently been
  damaging surrounding areas far less in recent
  years, however I was unable to find information
  regarding what happens to wastes that are still
  produced.
• This lack of information may be due to the
  industry disposing their wastes in ways that have
  not yet been exposed and does not necessarily
  imply that they dispose them in ways that do not
  damage people and the environment.
• The wastes still have to go somewhere.

48
PRODUCTS that use silicon chips

• In this section you will study environmental,
  human health, and social impacts associated with
  products that use silicon chips
• What products contain silicon chips
• Implications of products that contain use silicon
  chips

49
Products that contain silicon chips (1)

• Made smaller through silicon chip use
• Radios
• Televisions
• Computers
• Video games
• Cameras
• Electronic medical equipment

• Every day devices made more technologically
  sophisticated through silicon chip use
• Washing machines
• Microwaves
• Dishwashers
• Ovens
• Cars

50
Products that contain silicon chips (2)

• Made possible through silicon chip use
• Quartz watches
• Cell phones
• Bar code scanners
• Portable calculators
• Fax machines
• Copy machines
• Pacemakers
• Hearing aids

51
Implications of product use (1)

• We could argue that societies that use radios,
  televisions, computers, video games, and cell
  phones have become more socially isolated.
  Whereas children used to play games with each
  other, they now stay at home in their houses to
  watch television or play games on the computer or
  video game machine. Adults who may have once gone
  to bars and cafés to socialize may now do it in
  online chat rooms. When someone is talking on a
  cell phone in a public place, she is not as
  present with the people around her. Social
  isolation can lead to people feeling less
  connected to their communities, having retarded
  social skills, and feeling lonely among other
  problems. On the other hand, we could argue that
  the Internet has been an incredible tool, made
  possible by silicon chips, that has provided for
  the exchange of important information. We might
  also argue that cell phones have saved us time
  because we can make phone calls while we are
  driving.

52
Implications of product use (2)

• Some could argue that cars have led to a rise in
  energy consumption, but others would argue that
  they drive less because they shop on the Internet
  now.
• I doubt that many people would argue that the use
  of pacemakers and other electronic medical
  equipment has had a negative impact, unless they
  felt that people living longer was undesirable.
• Portable calculators, fax machines, copy
  machines, and technologically advanced
  microwaves, washing machines, and cars have
  generally made life easier and more efficient for
  us, although these machines may have replaced
  some jobs.
• As you can see, the impacts on humans,
  communities, and the environment when people use
  these products are ambiguous. Overall, these
  machines make life easier for their users, but
  possibly at the loss of social interaction, jobs,
  adventure, relaxation, and other valued
  activities.

53
TRANSPORTAION

• In this section you will study environmental,
  human health, and social impacts associated with
  the transportation systems used during the cradle
  to grave lifecycle of silica and silicon chips.
• Please go to the next slide

54
Transportation

• A crucial element of cradle to grave analysis of
  silica and silicon chips
• Necessary to
• Move silica from the mine and smelter to silicon
  chip manufacturing plants
• Move the chips from the mine and smelter to
  silicon chip manufacturing plants
• Move the chips to the factory where the
  electronics are manufactured
• Move those electronics from the manufacturing
  plant to the distribution centers and stores
• Move the electronics from the distribution
  centers and stores to the locations where they
  are used
• Move the no longer useful electronics from the
  locations where they are used to the recycling
  center or landfill
• Move the no longer useful electronics from the
  recycling center to a disposal operation usually
  in Asia

55
Transportation general

• Most transportation is fueled by petroleum
  products, which present a whole host of problems
  ranging from greenhouse gas emissions to
  extracting the limited natural resource to
  construction and disposal of the transportation
  vessels the petroleum produducts are used in.

56
Transportationsilica/silicon chips

• Transportation is a huge contributor to the
  destructive nature of the silicon chip and
  electronics industries that cannot be left out
  when analyzing silica and silicon chips from
  cradle to grave, but the exact problems it
  creates are not within the scope of this paper
• Without going into too much detail about the
  human, community, and environmental impact of the
  worlds transportation network, I do wish to
  mention three important points regarding
  transportation as it relates to silica and
  silicon chips.

57
1-Distance

• Silica and silicon chips travel long distances.
  In many cases, due to low transportation costs,
  the locations where silica is extracted, where
  silicon chips are made, where electronics are
  made, where the electronics are used, and where
  the electronics are disposed of are in different
  parts of the world
• This map shows the path a typical silicon chip
  may take

58
2-Lack of pollution controls

• Developing nations do not have as strict of
  pollution controls as the United States and other
  first world nations, meaning that tailpipe
  emissions are other wastes vehicles create are
  much higher.

59
3-Transportation infrastructure

• Many mining, fabrication, and disposal sites are
  created in areas that do not have sufficient
  transportation infrastructure at the time these
  sites are created. Road building, probably the
  most common destructive activity related to the
  construction of transportation infrastructure,
  destroys habitat and is, in and of itself,
  polluting.

60
DISPOSAL of products containing silicon chips

• In this section you will study environmental,
  human health, and social impacts associated with
  disposing of products that use silicon chips
• Disposal of products containing chips (E-waste)
• Disposal of silicon chips
• What E-waste has done
• Solutions not adopted by all

61
Disposal of products containing silicon chips

• As I stated earlier in the paper, the silicon
  chips themselves are not highly polluting or
  damaging to human health and it is the processes
  of creating the chips that are. However, when the
  electronic products made possible by silicon
  chips are disposed of after they are no longer
  useful, they once again have an extremely
  negative impact on humans, communities, and the
  environment. Most products that contain silicon
  chips are categorized as E-waste when they are no
  longer useful.

62
E-Waste (1)

• In 1998, it was estimated that 20 million
  computers became obsolete in the United States,
  and the overall E-waste volume was estimated at 5
  to 7 million tons (Puckett et al., 2002).
• Computers and other electronics are replaced not
  when they are broken, but when they have become
  undesireable due to improvements in technology.

63
E-Waste (2)

• Many of the old electronics are stored, some are
  refurbished, re-used, or recycled domestically,
  some end up in landfills and incinerators, the
  cleanest of which are very polluting, and some
  are sent to prisons to be dismantled.
• It is now becoming more and more difficult for
  consumers to dispose of electronics in these ways
  causing many consumers to turn to recycling,
  thinking that it is the environmentally and
  socially responsible thing to do. However, there
  are few recyclers who actually make use of used
  electronics

64
E-Waste (3)

• The solution in the United States and Canada
  has become exporting the no longer useful
  electronics to Asia.

65
Problems exporting E-waste

• E-waste is exported because low wages in
  developing countries make them the only places
  where it has a positive value
• It is damaging to humans, communities, and the
  environment because environmental and
  occupational regulations are lax or not well
  enforced

66
Silicon chip disposal (1)

• Chips that still have value are resold
• All other chips are processed in acid to remove
  precious metals
• The following description of the process is from
  Exporting harm The high-tech trashing of Asia,
  Prepared by The Basel Action Newtork and the
  Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (Puckett et al.,
  2002)
• The authors have extensively studied the Guiyu
  area of China

67
Silicon chip disposal (2)

• Many hundreds of workers, usually women and
  girlsplace the circuit boards on shallow
  wok-like grills that are heated underneath by a
  can filled with ignited coal. In the wok-grill is
  a pool of molten lead-tin solder a metal or
  metallic alloy, especially of lead and tin, that
  joins metallic surfaces (Merriam-Webster, 2002).
  The circuit boards are placed in the pooled
  solder and heated until the chips are removable.
  These are then plucked out with pliers and placed
  quickly in buckets.

68
Silicon chip disposal (3)

• Solder is also collected by slapping the boards
  hard against something such as a rock where the
  solder collects and is later melted off and
  sold. While fans are sometimes used to blow the
  toxic lead-tin solder fumes away, the exposure on
  a daily basis is likely to be very damaging.

69
Silicon chip disposal (4)

• After most of the board is picked over, it then
  goes to large scale burning or acid recovery
  operations outside of town along the river where
  the last remaining metals are recovered. Whole
  riverbanks were seen full of charred circuit
  boards reduced to blackened fiber-glass. This
  final burning process is bound to emit
  substantial quantities of harmful heavy metals,
  dioxins, beryllium, and PAHs.

70
Silicon chips disposal (5)

• Much of the work to remove chips from circuit
  boards is done for the ultimate purpose of
  removing precious metals. This is most often done
  by a very primitive process using acid baths.
  Although we could not test the actual chemicals,
  after consulting with metallurgical experts, we
  are confident that the baths were in fact aqua
  regia (a mixture of 25 pure nitric acid and 75
  pure hydrochloric acid). This mixture and process
  was invariably applied directly on the banks of
  rivers and waterways.

71
Silicon chip disposal (6)

• The aqua regia was first heated over small fires
  and then poured into plastic tubs full of
  computer chips. These in turn were routinely
  swirled and agitated to dissolve the tiny amounts
  of gold found inside. After many hours of this, a
  chemical is then added which precipitates the
  gold, making it settle to the bottom of the tub.
  This is recovered as a mud, dried, and then
  finally melted to a tiny bead of pure, shiny gold.

72
Silicon chip disposal (7)

• After most of the board is picked over, it then
  goes to large scale burning or acid recovery
  operations outside of town along the river where
  the last remaining metals are recovered. Whole
  riverbanks were seen full of charred circuit
  boards reduced to blackened fiber-glass. This
  final burning process is bound to emit
  substantial quantities of harmful heavy metals,
  dioxins, beryllium, and PAHs.

73
Silicon chip disposal (8)

• The men worked at this process day and night
  protected only by rubber boots and gloves. They
  had nothing to protect them from inhaling and
  enduring the acid and often toxic fumes. The aqua
  regia process is known to emit toxic chlorine and
  sulphur dioxide gasses.

74
What E-waste has done

• A water sample taken from the river, where wastes
  from acid stripping and other processes are
  dumped, revealed lead levels 2,400 times higher
  than the World Health Organization Drinking Water
  Guidelines (Puckett et al., 2002). The villages
  in China, India, and Pakistan studied by the
  Puckett report have chosen poison instead of
  poverty. They have made a mess of their good
  faming villages. After they have dismantled the
  computers, they burn the useless parts. Every
  day villagers inhale this dirty air their bodies
  have become weak. Many people have developed
  respiratory and skin problems. Some people wash
  vegetables and dishes with the polluted water,
  and they get stomach sickness. The human health
  and environmental problems that can arise are too
  numerous to list in this report, but it is safe
  to assume that they are overwhelming as the
  materials they are handling are highly hazardous
  and developing countries lack the appropriate
  technology to handle them safely.

75
Solutions not adopted by all

• Unlike Canada and the United States, most
  countries in the European Union have adopted
  policies that allow them to greatly reduce the
  amount of E-waste they create and stop exporting
  the E-waste in a way manner that is harmful to
  humans, communities and the environment
• Precautionary Principle a project or process
  cannot occur unless it can be proven that it will
  not harm people and in some cases the environment
• Extended Producer Responsibility producers are
  responsible for the products they create by
  requiring them to take the products back when
  they are no longer useful therefore encouraging
  producers to design their products for longevity,
  upgradability, and reuse
• Basel Ban calls for a minimization of
  transboundary movement of hazardous waste

76
CONCLUSION

• The way in which silica is used is typical of the
  way many natural resources are used today The
  first world nations extract natural resources
  from developing nations, reap the benefits of the
  products developed from those natural resources,
  and then send the no longer useful products back
  to the developing nations who then have to deal
  with the waste problem. Also, corporations
  exploit minority and poorer people living in
  first world nations by giving them no other
  choice but to work under deplorable conditions.
  Governments of first world nations and
  international bodies, such as the World Trade
  Organization and the World Bank back the
  corporations who profit from creating these
  products and all others who gain something from
  using these products, while they allow conditions
  to deteriorate for those living in developing
  nations.
• continued

77
Conclusion

• Generally, those who are white and have more
  wealth benefit from this arrangement, while those
  who are not white and have less wealth suffer
  from this arrangement. Unfortunately those with
  power are those who benefit and are not willing
  to work to change the system. Partly how they
  remain in power is through deceit by not
  providing information that would be detrimental
  to their position. I hope that this paper serves
  to empower those who are exploited and those who
  wish to help the exploited people of the world by
  giving them a better understanding of the process
  one natural resource goes through from its cradle
  to its grave.

78
BIBLIOGRAPHY

• CLICK ONE
• Works cited and where to go for more information
• Introduction
• Extraction
• Production
• Products
• Transportation (none available)
• Disposal
• Photo sources
• Navigation bar
• Introduction
• Extraction
• Production
• Products
• Transportation
• Disposal

79
Introduction information and works cited

• Chorlton, W. (2002). The invention of the silicon
  chip a revolution in daily life. Chicago
  Heinemann Library
• Williams, E., Ayres, R., Heller, M. (2002). The
  17 kg microchip energy materials use in the
  production. Environmental science and technology,
  36(24), 5504-5510.

80
Extraction information and works cited

• Brandt, E. (2001, July 12). Omaruru smelter
  project raises residents concerns. The Namibian.
  Retrieved March 8, 2003, from http//www.namibian.
  com.na
• Graig, A. (2001, July 20) How safe is quartz
  mining? Namibian Economist. Retrieved March 8,
  2003, from http//www.economist.com.na
• Graig, A. (2001, July 6). Surface owners
  agreements last hurdle for Omaruru silicon mine.
  Namibian Economist. Retrieved March 4, 2003, from
  http//www.economist.com.na
• Mahoney, D.P. (1999). Control of health hazards
  from crystalline silica. Professional Safety,
  44(5), 31-33.
• Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. (2002).
  Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved
  summer 2003, from http//www.m-w.com (no further
  silicon info.)
• Tasmania Public Land Use Commission. (1996).
  Tasmania Social and economic report mining. In
  Tasmania regional forest agreements (Industry
  Development Regional Forest Agreements
  Publications Reports Social and Economic
  Tasmania Social and Economic Report Chapter 5
  Minerals Mining). Retrieved August 13, 2003,
  from http//www.affa.gov.au/content/output.cfm?Obj
  ectIDD2C48F86-BA1A-11A1-A2200060B0A01891

81
Production information and works cited

• Archer, E.R.M., Turner II, B.L. (1997).
  Introduction to the Human Dimensions of Global
  Change. Retrieved July 30, 2003, from
  http//www.aag.org/HDGC/www/intro/units/unit1/work
  sheets/wksheet1-3.PDF (no further silicon info.)
• Dirty secrets of the chipmaking industry. (1998).
  USA Today. Retrieved March 20, 2003, from
  http//www.svtc.org/listserv/letter4.htm
• Energy Information Adminstration. (2003).
  Electricity Quick Stats. Retrieved July 30, 2003,
  from http//www.eia.doe.gov/neic/quickfacts/quicke
  lectric.htm (no further silicon info.)
• Fisher, J. (2001, July 30). Poison valley. SALON
  Magazine. Retrieved December 9, 2002, from
  http//dir.salon.com
• Parthasarathy, A. (2002, August 31). Give silicon
  another 15 years Intel chief. The Hindu.
  Retrieved August 13, 2003, from
  http//www.hinduonnet.com
• Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. (1997, February
  10). The environmental cost of computer chips.
  Retrieved December 6, 2002, from
  http//www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid
  3432
• Williams, E., Ayres, R., Heller, M. (2002). The
  17 kg microchip energy materials use in the
  production. Environmental science and technology,
  36(24), 5504-5510.

82
Products information

• Chorlton, W. (2002). The invention of the silicon
  chip a revolution in daily life. Chicago
  Heinemann Library.

83
Disposal information and works cited

• Puckett, J., Byster, L., Westervelt, S.,
  Gutierrez, R., Davis, S., Hussain, A., et al.
  (2002). Exporting harm The high-tech trashing of
  Asia. Seattle The Basel Action Network, San
  Jose, CA Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.

84
Navigation bar photos

• ExtractionRotary Club of Seto North.
  www.setolink.ne.jp/seton.rc/ ourcityseto.html
• ProductionSandia National Laboratories.
  www.sandia.gov/mstc/technologies/microelectronics/
  facilities.html\
• ProductsCircuit City. www.circuitcity.com
• DisposalPuckett, J., Byster, L., Westervelt, S.,
  Gutierrez, R., Davis, S., Hussain, A., et al.
  (2002). Exporting harm The high-tech trashing of
  Asia. Seattle The Basel Action Network, San
  Jose, CA Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.
• TransportationU.S. Environmental Protection
  Agency. www.epa.gov/NE/eco/diesel/

85
Introduction photos

• Opening pageFirst Science. www.firstscience.com/s
  ite/ articles/bradley.asp
• What are silicon chips?The Tech Report.
  www.tech-report.com/reviews/ 2002q3/ti4600s/index.
  x?pg1
• What have they done?-Chorlton, W. (2002). The
  invention of the silicon chip a revolution in
  daily life. Chicago Heinemann Library-Circuit
  City. http//www.circuitcity.com
• What is silicon? A Spiritual Platform.
  spiritualplatform.org/sp/ crystals/crystalsq.html

86
Extraction photos

• EXTRACTION Mining of silica First Science.
  www.firstscience.com/site/ articles/bradley.asp
• Impacts to mine siteMining Technology.
  www.mining-technology.com
• Case study Omaruru, NamibiaTravelAmap.com.
  travelamap.com/africa/
• Water contaminationSchool of Earth Sciences and
  Geography, Kingston University.
  www.kingston.ac.uk/esg/courses/msc/mmds.html
• Importance of water (1)Wrexham County Borough
  Council's Web site http//www.wrexham.gov.uk/image
  s/contaminated_land/clean_river.jpg
• Importance of water (2)Department of Earth
  Sciences, University of Waterloo.
  www.science.waterloo.ca/research/ggr/MineWasteGeoc
  hemistry/AcidMineDrainage.html

87
Production photos (1)

• PRODUCTION of silicon chipsThe Tech Report.
  www.tech-report.com/reviews/ 2002q3/ti4600s/index.
  x?pg1
• Significance of Inputs-Equitorial Oil.
  http//www.equatorialoil.com/photos/power20plant.
  jpg-Emergency Planning for Chemical Spills.
  http//www.chemicalspill.org/Photos/next1.html
• Inputs Required (2)Emergency Planning for
  Chemical Spills. http//www.chemicalspill.org/Phot
  os/next1.html
• Wastes ProducedAsheville Global Report.
  www.agrnews.org/issues/ 162/environment.html
• Pollutants released into airEco IQ Magazine
  www.ecoiq.com/magazine/ opinion/opinion31.html
• CONTINUED

88
Production photos (2)

• Working conditions-Infocus. infocus.gsfc.nasa.gov
  / facil.html-Sandia National Laboratories.
  http//www.sandia.gov/mstc/technologies/microelect
  ronics/facilities.html
• Accidents are commonConsumer and Employment
  Protection, Western Australia. http//www.safetyli
  ne.wa.gov.au/imagebin/sis2199.gif
• Results of working conditions (1)-National
  Breast Cancer Foundation. www.nationalbreastcancer
  .org/ signs_and_symptoms/-Veniks Aviaion.
  www.aeronautics.ru/archive/ du-watch/iraq_images/
  -Whatsbetter?com. www.whatsbetter.com/display-pyt?
  itembottemten

89
Products photos

• PRODUCTS that use silicon chips (1)-Circuit
  City. www.circuitcity.com-Sears. www.sears.com
• Products that use silicon chips (2)-Hampshire
  Direct Hearing Services. www.directhearing.co.uk/
  styles.htm-Circuit City. www.circuitcity.comwww.s
  ears.com

90
Transportation photos

• Transportation generalphoto by Zack Kahn
• 1-DistanceThe Peters Projection, An Accurate
  Area Map. www.petersmap.com
• 2-Lack of pollution controls-U.S. Environmental
  Protection Agency. www.epa.gov/NE/eco/diesel/-Uni
  ted Nations Chronicle. http//www.un.org/Pubs/chro
  nicle/2002/issue3/081902_asian_haze.html
• 3-Transportation infrastructureStop Fortis.
  www.stopfortis.org/ BulldozersPhotos2_14_02.html

91
Disposal photos

• All photos in the disposal section come from
  Puckett, J., Byster, L., Westervelt, S.,
  Gutierrez, R., Davis, S., Hussain, A., et al.
  (2002). Exporting harm The high-tech trashing of
  Asia. Seattle The Basel Action Network, San
  Jose, CA Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.