Environmental threats of discarded picture tubes and printed circuit boards

Scrap picture tubes (television and monitor tubes) and printed circuit boards were investigated for their potential threat to the environment. First, a qualitative analysis of samples was carried out by atomic emission spectrophotometry. In addition, U.S. EPA Method 3050 (SW-846) and atomic absorpti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of hazardous materials Vol. 34; no. 2; pp. 235 - 243
Main Author Yang, Gordon C.C.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.06.1993
Elsevier
Subjects
Applied sciences
Exact sciences and technology
Other wastes and particular components of wastes
Pollution
Wastes
Chemical analysis
Toxicity
Printed circuit board
Hazardous waste
Leaching
Heavy metal
Industrial waste
Emission spectrometry
Image tube
Electronics industry
Solid waste
Qualitative analysis
Environmental protection
Atomic absorption spectrometry
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Summary:Scrap picture tubes (television and monitor tubes) and printed circuit boards were investigated for their potential threat to the environment. First, a qualitative analysis of samples was carried out by atomic emission spectrophotometry. In addition, U.S. EPA Method 3050 (SW-846) and atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS) were employed to determine the total contents of heavy metals of interest. Finally, TCLP and AAS were used to evaluate the leaching toxicity of the samples. All color and amber picture tubes tested were found to be hazardous; whereas the green, white and paper-white picture tubes were not. For color picture tubes, lead and zinc concentrations of TCLP are greater than the current regulatory thresholds in Taiwan; while the amber one is hazardous because of its cadmium concentration. The environmental threats of those hazardous picture tubes are ascribed to leaching of heavy metals from the phosphors that are deposited on the inner side of the viewing screen of each picture tube. All tested printed circuit boards also were found to be hazardous as evidenced by their TCLP lead, zinc and cadmium concentrations. The findings in this work show that disposal of discarded TV sets, personal computers, video-game sets, etc. should be managed properly to avoid contamination of soil and groundwater. Several recommendations were made in this regard.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
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ISSN:0304-3894
1873-3336
DOI:10.1016/0304-3894(93)85008-3