Faced with the increasing number of used batteries, some experts shouted: The potential harm of waste batteries in my country cannot be ignored, and it is urgent to attract widespread attention and attention of the whole society.
Now people are inseparable from the battery almost every day in social life. According to the calculation of my country’s annual consumption of 7 billion to 8 billion batteries, per capita consumption of 5 to 6 batteries a year. The most commonly used batteries are pagers, cell phones, pocket radios, walkmans, remote controls, etc. Taking pagers as an example, there are currently about 40 million pager users in the country. One user needs at least six or seven batteries a year, and consumes about 250 million batteries a year.
A relevant person from the Science and Technology Standards Department of the State Environmental Protection Administration believes that with the continuous expansion of the types, production and use of batteries in my country, the number and types of waste batteries are also increasing. Waste batteries contain mercury, lead, cadmium, nickel and other heavy metals and electrolyte solutions such as acid and alkali, which have different degrees of harm to the human body and the ecological environment. It is understood that the waste batteries that are harmful to human health and the ecological environment and listed in the hazardous waste control list mainly include: mercury-containing batteries, mainly mercury oxide batteries; lead-acid batteries; cadmium-containing batteries, mainly nickel-cadmium batteries.
Relevant information shows that a 1-size battery rotted in the ground can make 1 square meter of soil permanently useless; a button battery can pollute 600 tons of water, which is equivalent to a person’s life. of water intake. Among the substances that pose the greatest threat to the natural environment, batteries contain mercury, lead, cadmium, etc. If used batteries are mixed with domestic waste and landfilled, or discarded, the exuded mercury and heavy metals will be It penetrates into the soil, pollutes the groundwater, and then enters into fish and crops, destroying the living environment of human beings, and indirectly threatening human health.
Once the human body absorbs these heavy metals, what diseases will occur? According to relevant experts, mercury is a highly toxic heavy metal, which is very destructive to the central nervous system of the human body. At present, the mercury content of mercury-containing alkaline dry batteries produced in my country is 1% to 5%, and the mercury content of neutral dry batteries is 0.025%. Cadmium can easily cause chronic poisoning in the human body. The main symptoms are emphysema, osteomalacia, and anemia, which may paralyze the human body. And lead is the most difficult to excrete after entering the human body, it interferes with renal function and reproductive function.
Experts believe that due to the characteristics of long cycle and high concealment of battery pollution, its potential harm is quite serious, and improper handling will also cause secondary pollution. According to Dr. Yang Yifu, some farmers in a coastal province in my country dumped the waste liquid containing lead and sulfuric acid due to improper recycling and disposal of lead in lead-acid batteries, which not only caused lead poisoning, but also prevented local crops from growing. .