What chemicals are in your Apple iPhone 5?


Ranking the 36 phones tested
According to iFixit, 130 million cellphones a year are discarded with only 8% recycled correctly. The rest end up in landfills or incinerators and heavy metals are thus leaked into groundwater or into the air. Some states ban electronics from being dumped in those locations, but 32 states don't have such a law. And as an example of what could happen, iFixit points to over 41,000 acres in Indiana that was contaminated after one firm dumped electrical equipment into a landfill. The contaminant in that case is linked to liver, thyroid, and immune diseases.

Breaking down the Apple iPhone 5
Looking at the Apple iPhone specifically, heavy metals like lead, chlorine and mercury can be detected throughout the device. Still, with a score of 2.75, it has almost half of the toxic chemicals ranking of the phone on the bottom of the list. Ironically, that model too is an Apple iPhone. The original model of the handset scored a 5.0.
source: iFixit

The chemical composition of phones has improved over time
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