Is Your Computer Leaking Toxic Dust?

n0alpha writes "A recent study by scientists at the University of Washington suggests that computers emit dangerous chemicals. Specifically, chemicals called PBDEs (poly-brominated-diphyenyl ethers) found in the household dust that collects on your monitor and keyboard could pose a health threat. Scientists say the chemicals have caused developmental and learning defects in laboratory animals and may pose a threat to people and animals. 'It's critical we phase these materials out,' said Suellen Mele, Citizens for Resource Conservation. And some companies are doing just that."

Comments

You can joke but...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's already been documented that silicon valley has the highest incidence of autism in children, as well as a growing rate of infertility. No idea on cancer yet.

Health care people also have increasing rates of autistic children, and at the same time their work environment has become increasingly technical (higher end imaging systems etc) I have not seen breakouts on different professions, expect more studies to follow.

I have four friends with recently diagnosed autistic kids, Parents: radiation technician, nurse, medical equipment technician, programmer, data administrator.

The fall of the Roman empire was attributed partly to the fact that the wealthy and affluent would drink wines out of lead vessels while the poor drank from animal sacks. The wealthy and powerful ended up poisoning their minds and allowed the barbarians to overun them. We may be doing the exact same thing with technology.

Those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it.

Re:You can joke but...

[slackerboy]

Yes, and some of that is quite possibly due to an increased knowledge of autism and therefore increased diagnosis.

In the case of Silicon Valley, I read an article that talked about the fact that there are an unusually high number of children with Asperger syndrome (a mild form of autism). Since people with Asperger are still fairly functional in society but have some quirks (like the inability to understand that not everyone sees things the same way they do), some scientists believe that a lot of geeks may actually have undiagnosed Asperger's. Once you concentrate enough people with this syndrome/genetic predisposition for it and then they start raising families of their own...

Which is not to say that there are no other causes, just that they may not be environmental. The fact of the matter is that no one really understands autism.

Dust ON computers?

[lone_marauder]

I am a little confused. My research indicates that computers really don't generate very much dust at all. When they are new, they are very clean and generally devoid of fibrous substances that could be liberated as dust.

I have found, however, that computers make excellent dust accumulators. PBDEs are not only used in computers, but also in children's pajamas, mattresses, etc. - all of which generate large quantities of dust. If there are harmful flame retardant chemicals in the dust, wouldn't that have more to do with the mattress, furniture, and clothing than it would with the computer?

The life you save...

[Chordonblue]

...may not be your own. There's been a lot of jokes here about how no one's going to live forever and all that bullshit, but there are other considerations than yourself.

Let me give you a *painful* personal example. Three years ago, my six year old son was diagnosed with Autism - a genetic defect that may in fact be linked to chemicals such as these.

It would really piss me off to find that my career was directly responsible for his condition. My wife sent me this article before even Slashdot picked it up and it got me thinking about it.

It's all water under the bridge now, but my son's condition has affected our lives in countless ways including the decision not to have children in the future.

It also made me wonder about this article on Wired:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/asperger s_ pr.html

It's how Silicon Valley has the highest rates of Autism in the country. Maybe it's not so much who you mate with, but in what environment...

Re:The life you save...

[Chordonblue]

We are extremely fortunate in that his Autism was caught early and that intervention has worked wonders. Today, you'd hardly know he wasn't a 'normal' little boy of six were it not for his social interaction quirks.

And you are right, I probably wouldn't change my profession, but you have to wonder what might have been in other circumstances nonetheless. I may not blame the technology - but I do blame unscruplulous corporations who have been known to hide the true dangers of the stuff they hawk.

All I'm saying is that:

a) People working in this field need to consider the possible risks.

b) If, in the future, a company is found to have violated some sort of environmental laws they need to be nailed to the wall - big time.

Re:It's true!!!!

[harrkev]

I know that you are trying to be funny, but my budget allows me $1000 to build a new computer in the next couple of months (big news for me, since I use a Celeron 466 at home). I also have two small children at home -- a three-year-old and a two-year-old, and I love them very much and want them to be healthy.

What I want to know is if the "dust" is left on the item from manufacture, or if the "dust" is regular houshold dust which leeches chemicals from any exposed surface. The first one you can hope to clean off, the second one you can't. I did read a version of the article linked from the Yahoo new site (not sure how different it is from the article mentioned here). But in the article that I read, they just found dust, and apparently made no effort to determine the source, or if cleaning a new computer would help.

And if chemicals are being emitted by every available surface, are any airborne, or do they need a carrier such as dust in order to travel?

If the resudue can be cleaned off of the parts, what is a safe cleaner to use on a motherboard?

At least I am glad that I have already decided on an Antec server case which has air filters over the intake fans in the front. If I do find a way to clean off the mobo and other internal electronics, then I might be able to keep dust off of the inside of the case.

Re:In other news...

[tsg]

Maybe, but I can't imagine anyone ever coming back in a couple of years and saying these chemicals are good for us.

As far as I can tell, nobody can really tell for sure that they are bad for us now. I haven't been able to find any health effects on humans, and the studies I have found are limited to lab mice and don't appear to be conclusive (IANA biologist). If someone could point me towards something a little more conclusive I would appreciate it.

I'm not saying there definitely isn't a problem, but at the very least it looks like we need more research. There's enough bad science going on now to make me skeptical of any health warnings printed in major news media, and the article takes it as a given that PDBE's are toxic to humans while only really reporting that they are present in computers.