Global Poisoning by Recycling Lead-Acid Batteries
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All across the globe workers collect spent lead-acid batteries, break them down, smelt the lead, and resell the ingots to other manufacturing and production facilities. In the developing world, workers and their families perform the work. Their exposure to lead, arsenic, and other heavy metals can be very high. If children are involved in the process, blood leads can reach dangerous levels. There are many companies in the US, Canada, and Mexico doing the same work. The occupational health exposures are more controlled but the risk is relative high. Only a few companies have implemented the necessary hierarchy of controls to control worker exposure. Finally, the process is also a public health and an environmental health issue for workers in developing countries and company not using air emission controls to reduce the spread of lead in the air.
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Global Poisoning by Recycling Lead-Acid Batteries
- 1. Global Poisoning by Recycling Lead-Acid Batteries PRESENTED BY: BERNARD L. FONTAINE, JR., CIH, CSP, FAIHA THE WINDSOR CONSULTING GROUP, INC. (Thinkstock Photos/Getty Images)
- 2. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling Some sites that have been noted as examples of the problem Thiaroye Sur Mer, Dakar, Senegal Bajos de Haina, Dominican Republic Picnic Garden, Kolkata, India Estimated Population at Risk: 1 Million
- 3. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling Phase I – The collection process
- 4. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling Phase II - An open furnace is used to melt batteries in Kolkata, India
- 5. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling Empty car battery casings. India. Photo by Blacksmith Institute.
- 6. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling
- 7. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling
- 8. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling
- 9. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling
- 10. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling These children are developmentally impaired as a result of lead poisoning. Haina, Dominican Republic. Photo by Blacksmith Institute.
- 11. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling A worker sorts through used lead acid batteries in Kenya. Photo by Blacksmith Institute
- 12. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling
- 13. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling Disassembling used lead-acid batteries in Vietnam
- 14. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling Mexico should establish a more robust regulatory framework that covers the entire industry and provides public health and environmental protections equivalent to those in the United States.
- 15. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling
- 16. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling
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- 18. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling
- 19. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling Hazardous battery recycling on the streets of New Delhi. A child disassembles a spent truck battery on sidewalk to sell lead to unregistered recycling units. Photo courtesy of OK International
- 20. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling Occupational health and safety controls to reduce exposure in battery plants in Mexico
- 21. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling
- 22. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling
- 23. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling
- 24. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling Mass Lead Poisoning in Dakar Senegal Battery Recycling Exacts a Heavy Toll In a neighborhood of Dakar, Senegal, 18 children died from an aggressive central nervous system disease between November 2007 and March 2008. Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) and local health authorities were called in to investigate the deaths, but cultural prohibitions preempted autopsies of the children. So the researchers examined 32 of the children’s siblings and 23 of the siblings’ mothers along with 18 unrelated local children and 8 unrelated adults. They concluded that the cause of death likely was encephalopathy resulting from severe lead poisoning [EHP 117:1535–1540; Haefliger et al.].
- 25. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling
- 26. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling Battery manufacturing plant's young neighbors exposed to hazardous lead debris dumped out their back door. (Bhubaneswar, India). Photo courtesy of OK International
- 27. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling
- 28. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling Workers smelting lead into ingots
- 29. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling
- 30. Global Poisoning from Battery Recycling
Editor's Notes
- Lead-acid batteries are rechargeable batteries that are widely found throughout the world and are commonly used in motor vehicles. These batteries are made up of lead plates and sulfuric acid that are contained within a plastic cover. The lead plates are perfect for use in batteries because of their ability to be recharged multiple times. After sustained use, the lead plates eventually weaken and are no longer able to store energy. Used lead-acid batteries (ULABs) are either discarded or recycled. Because of the toxic materials within these used batteries, the Basel Convention has included ULABs on its list of materials classified as “hazardous waste.”
- Young children are particularly at risk of lead exposure because of typical hand-to-mouth behavior. Because so many lead battery scraps are left out in the open, children often play in or around these dump sites and can inadvertently pick up stones or soil contaminated with lead, and even bring these objects back to their homes. The most frequent form of lead exposure for children is ingestion, as lead toxins can enter directly into children’s bodies through lead dust–covered hands, food, or toys that are either eaten or brought in contact with the mouth.
- Though the problems associated with informal ULAB recycling processes and lead poisoning are well documented and recognized under the Basel Convention Secretariat, these practices continue to occur on a very large scale throughout the developing world. Much of the informal ULAB recycling is very small-scale and difficult to regulate or control, but progress can be made through cleanup, outreach, policy, and education. Blacksmith’s Lead Poisoning and Car Batteries Project (formerly the Initiative for Responsible Battery Recycling) is currently in place in eight countries, including Senegal (with co-funding from Green Cross Switzerland), the Dominican Republic, India, and the Philippines. The Project aims to end widespread lead poisoning from the improper recycling of ULABs, and consists of several different strategies and programs, with the most important priority being the health of children in the surrounding communities.
- A small town outside of Manila in the Philippines contains a closed battery manufacturing plant and a ULAB recycling facility. Though the plant is guarded, scavengers still sneak in to recover material that may contain reusable lead. This practice, along with waste and toxic spillage from the other recycling facilities, has lead to high levels of lead contamination in the area, and many people are growing their food in soil with high lead pollution. Blacksmith samples found 193,880 parts per million of lead in the soil, which is over 400 times the health standard. Estimates indicate that 15,000 people are at risk of exposure to lead in this area.
- As urban centers in the Global South become more populated the confluence of high unemployment rates, with increased car ownership, have led to a proliferation of informal ULAB reconditioning and recovery activities. These are often conducted by economically marginalized members of society, needing an additional source of income, but without any understanding of the risks involved. The informal process of recovering secondary lead from the ULABs includes breaking the batteries manually with an axe. In many cases, informal battery melting is a subsistence activity, and undertaken in homes (even in the kitchen), using archaic melting operations to recover and sell the secondary lead to the larger processers. Despite efforts by government agencies and the industry to bring safer and more efficient practices into this stage of the recycling process, ignorance of the risks of lead contamination combined with a lack of viable economic alternatives has led to the systemic poisoning of many poor populations throughout the developing world.
- Workers of Perkampungan Industry Kecil (PIK) in Tegal Regency of Central Java, Indonesia sort used-lead acid battery waste and conduct smelting operations. Efforts by Pure Earth have encouraged zoning initiatives to relocate industrial operations away from residential villages. While relocating operations to an urban industrial center decreases hazardous exposure to villagers, workers continue to be exposed through inhalation of contaminated dust particles.
- In many developing countries individuals working on the side of the road or in “backyard smelters” carry out lead battery recycling. Because of the primitive nature of these operations and their enormous number (estimated to be in the tens of thousands) the control of lead poisoning from the contamination of homes and the environment is a major challenge. In 2008 at least 18 children died and many more were poisoned from lead in Dakar, Senegal after exposure to contaminated dust and soil from the recycling of used lead batteries. Large-scale recycling facilities are also known to be significant sources of lead exposure in many parts of the world. There are dozens of examples of informal and even large lead battery recycling plants that have been the source of lead poisoning among workers and local residents.
- In tracking used lead battery exports from the U.S., we noted that exports to Mexico have been growing exponentially following the lowering of the lead emission standards in the U.S. under the Clean Air Act in 2008. The U.S. Customs data shows that the increase in used lead batteries exported to Mexico was twice as large in the four years starting in 2008 (209,204,651 kg) than in the previous four-year period (94,774,929 Kg) before the change in U.S. EPA regulatory standards In addition to Mexico, the U.S. exported smaller quantities of used lead batteries to 47 other countries in 2011 (including approximately 27 developing countries) many with weaker environmental standards and insufficient enforcement capacity. In addition, the U.S. is apparently allowing these exports to countries outside the OECD without obtaining consent from the receiving countries in violation of the Basel Convention. The analysis by OK International shows that more lead is being exported from the U.S. in used batteries to Mexico,
- Even lead battery recycling plants in the U.S. are sources of significant emissions which have resulted in the contamination of hundreds of sites around the country. In the U.S. lead battery recycling facilities are now subject to the strictest national emission standards of any country. Emissions from these plants to surface waters range up to 540 pounds (245 kg). The self-reported emissions data differences are not due to plant capacity but are likely due to differences in pollution technologies and in state and local permitting requirements. An Exide Technologies battery recycling plant in Vernon, California was shut down by State regulators in 2015 due to its excessive lead and arsenic emissions which were shown to be contaminating thousands of homes and exposing residents to these dangerous neurotoxins. At one point in the last decade it was releasing more than 3,400 pounds (1,540 kg) of lead air emissions annually, although levels dropped significantly in its last few years of operation. Although the facility was closed, there are still lead battery recycling facilities operating in the U.S. that are releasing thousands of pounds of lead into the air annually that is contributing to soil and dust contamination.
- Global lead consumption is expected to exceed 10 million tons in 2011 and approximately 80% of the lead produced is used in manufacturing lead batteries. There is immense growth in the demand for lead batteries in developing countries reflecting growth rates in the motorized vehicle, computer, telecommunications, and solar energy industries. China is the world’s largest manufacturer of lead batteries and between 2004 and 2010, lead battery production in China increased 133%. It is estimated that the Chinese lead battery output will continue to grow at an annual rate of 16.7% from 2009.
- Since 1995, local people had broken apart batteries from vehicles and appliances and sorted the components in an open sandy area of the neighborhood. They sifted through the sand for scraps of valuable lead to sell, even carrying sacks of contaminated sand into their homes. People were probably exposed by inhaling and ingesting lead dust, with children particularly exposed through hand‐to‐mouth activity and eating the contaminated soil. The developing nervous system of children is particularly vulnerable to the toxic effects of lead. Blood lead concentrations as low as 10 μg/dL are known to impair neurologic development, resulting in permanent intellectual impairment. However, recent evidence suggests there may be no safe threshold of exposure. Among the 50 children tested, blood lead levels ranged from 39.8 to 613.9 μg/dL. Seventeen of the 50 children showed neuropsychiatric symptoms including convulsions, irritability, and aggression, and 21 showed gastrointestinal symptoms such as anorexia and vomiting. Adult blood lead levels ranged from 32.5 to 98.9 μg/dL, and their most commonly reported symptom was gastrointestinal upset.
- Although in most cases ongoing exposure to lead causes chronic lead poisoning among children and adults, there have been many reports of localized acute lead poisonings affecting large numbers of people. Over the last twenty years there have been many mass poisoning incidents worldwide attributed to the manufacturing and recycling of lead batteries. These incidents have affected workers and surrounding residents including children, some of whom have died or suffer permanent neurological damage as a result of these exposures. A description of some of the most widely reported incidents from China, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Senegal, Trinidad, and Vietnam.
- The villagers of Dong Mai, Vietnam have turned to battery recycling and small-scale lead smelting to earn their living. Pure Earth, working with international partners and local officials, measured lead contamination in homes and yards in Dog Mai. After remediation activities were completed at cost of $20 a person for the entire village, residents’ BLLs were shown to drop more than 30%.