Editing Environmental racism (section)

====China====

From the mid-1990s until about 2001, it is estimated that some 50 to 80 percent of the electronics collected for recycling in the western half of the United States was being exported for dismantling overseas, predominantly to China and Southeast Asia.<ref>Grossman, 189.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Huo|first1=Xia|last2=Peng|first2=Lin|last3=Xu|first3=Xijin|last4=Zheng|first4=Liangkai|last5=Qiu|first5=Bo|last6=Qi|first6=Zongli|last7=Zhang|first7=Bao|last8=Han|first8=Dai|last9=Piao|first9=Zhongxian|date=2007|title=Elevated Blood Lead Levels of Children in Guiyu, an Electronic Waste Recycling Town in China|journal=Environmental Health Perspectives|volume=115|issue=7|pages=1113–1117|doi=10.1289/ehp.9697|issn=0091-6765|pmc=1913570|pmid=17637931|bibcode=2007EnvHP.115.1113H }}</ref> This scrap processing is quite profitable and preferred due to an abundant workforce, cheap labour, and lax environmental laws.<ref>Grossman, 194.</ref><ref name="autogenerated2006">{{cite book|last=Grossman|first=Elizabeth|title=High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health|date=2006|publisher=Island Press|isbn=978-1597261906|location=Washington, D.C.|page=185}}</ref>

[[Guiyu Town|Guiyu]], [[China]], is one of the largest recycling sites for [[Electronic waste|e-waste]], where heaps of discarded computer parts rise near the riverbanks and compounds, such as [[cadmium]], [[copper]], lead, [[PBDEs]], contaminate the local water supply.<ref>Grossman, 184.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Shi|first1=Jingchu|last2=Zheng|first2=Gene|last3=Wong|first3=Ming-Hung|last4=Liang|first4=Hong|last5=Li|first5=Yuelin|last6=Wu|first6=Yinglin|last7=Li|first7=Ping|last8=Liu|first8=Wenhua|date=2016|title=Health risks of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons via fish consumption in Haimen bay (China), downstream of an e-waste recycling site (Guiyu)|journal=Environmental Research|volume=147|pages=223–240|bibcode=2016ER....147..233S|doi=10.1016/j.envres.2016.01.036|pmid=26897061}}</ref> Water samples taken by the [[Basel Action Network]] in 2001 from the [[Lian River (South China Sea)|Lianjiang River]] contained lead levels 190 times higher than WHO safety standards.<ref name="autogenerated2006" /> Despite contaminated drinking water, residents continue to use contaminated water over expensive trucked-in supplies of drinking water.<ref name="autogenerated2006" /> Nearly 80 percent of children in the [[Electronic waste in Guiyu|e-waste hub of Guiyu, China]], suffer from lead poisoning, according to recent reports.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Garber|first=Kent|date=20 December 2007|title=Technology's Morning After|url=https://www.usnews.com/articles/news/2007/12/20/technologys-morning-after.html|magazine=[[U.S. News & World Report]]|access-date=6 November 2012}}</ref> Before being used as the destination of electronic waste, most of Guiyu was composed of small farmers who made their living in the agriculture business.<ref name="autogenerated3">Grossman, 187.</ref> However, farming has been abandoned for more lucrative work in scrap electronics.<ref name="autogenerated3" /> "According to the Western press and both Chinese university and NGO researchers, conditions in these workers' rural villages are so poor that even the primitive electronic scrap industry in Guiyu offers an improvement in income".<ref>Grossman, 186-187.</ref>

Researchers have found that as rates of hazardous air pollution increase in China, the public has mobilized to implement measures to curb detrimental impacts. Areas with ethnic minorities and western regions of the country tend to carry disproportionate environmental burdens.<ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.3390/su9101871 | doi-access=free | title=Environmental Inequality in China: A "Pyramid Model" and Nationwide Pilot Analysis of Prefectures with Sources of Industrial Pollution | date=2017 | last1=He | first1=Qi | last2=Fang | first2=Hong | last3=Ji | first3=Han | last4=Fang | first4=Siran | journal=Sustainability | volume=9 | issue=10 | page=1871 | bibcode=2017Sust....9.1871H }}</ref>