# E-Waste and Health > E-waste and health for NEET-PG PSM: lead, mercury, cadmium toxicity, informal burning hazards, EPR under the 2022 rules and safe recycler pathways. - Canonical URL: https://prepelephant.com/topics/neet-pg/community-medicine/e-waste-health - Exam / course: NEET-PG · Subject: Community Medicine - Publisher: PrepElephant (https://prepelephant.com) — Prepared and reviewed by the PrepElephant Academic Review Team - First published: 2026-10-02 - Last updated: 2026-10-02 - How to cite: "E-Waste and Health", PrepElephant, https://prepelephant.com/topics/neet-pg/community-medicine/e-waste-health ## Direct answer A discarded cathode-ray-tube television holds kilogrammes of leaded glass, a fluorescent lamp its mercury dose, old circuit boards cadmium and brominated flame retardants — which is why electronic waste, several million tonnes a year in India and third-highest generator globally, is a toxicology topic wearing an environment costume. Health damage concentrates in the informal sector, where workers — often women and children — dismantle by hand, burn polyvinyl chloride cables to recover copper and acid-leach circuit boards for gold, inhaling metal-laden fumes and dioxins. Lead damages the developing nervous system and causes anaemia; mercury attacks kidney and brain; cadmium targets bone and kidney with Itai-itai disease as the classical extreme; chromium and beryllium cause dermatitis, lung disease and cancer; burning organics release dioxins and furans, carcinogens that bioaccumulate. Governance runs through the E-Waste (Management) Rules — 2011 first, recast 2016, replaced by the 2022 Rules in force from April 2023 with extended producer responsibility, EPR credits and a CPCB registration portal. ## What you must remember - **Burden frame:** India generates several million tonnes of e-waste annually — commonly cited as third after China and the United States. - **Toxin map:** lead (CRT glass, solder — neurodevelopmental toxicity, anaemia); mercury (lamps, flat panels — renal and neuro); cadmium (batteries, chips — renal and bone disease); chromium (anti-corrosion plating — dermatitis, lung carcinoma); beryllium (alloys — chronic beryllium lung disease); brominated flame retardants (endocrine and neuro effects). - **Burning hazard:** open burning of PVC-insulated cables releases dioxins and furans — persistent organic pollutants, carcinogenic, bioaccumulating. - **Routes of exposure:** inhalation of fumes and dust, dermal contact during acid leaching, ingestion via contaminated soil and water; children absorb lead far more efficiently than adults. - **Clinical picture in informal workers:** respiratory symptoms, dermatoses, anaemia, peripheral neuropathy, raised blood lead, neurodevelopmental deficits in children of exposed mothers. - **Rules timeline:** 2011 Rules (in force 2012) introduced take-back; 2016 Rules introduced EPR; the 2022 Rules — notified November 2022, effective 1 April 2023 — add EPR credit trading, CPCB portal registration and environmental compensation. - **EPR core:** producers must collect and recycle a fixed, rising proportion of what they place on the market through registered dismantlers and recyclers. - **One-liner distinction:** e-waste rules exclude used lead-acid batteries (separate battery rules), micro-enterprises and radiotherapy equipment. ## What breaks open when a circuit board burns Stand in Seelampur in Delhi or Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, India's informal recycling hubs. A teenager with no gloves strips boards over a pan, heating them so chips lift — breathing lead fumes. Beside her, cables burn in an open drum — the copper is worth recovering, and the smoke carries dioxins and furans that settle on every surface. Down the lane, a workshop acid-leaches boards for gold — the fumes scar airways, and the spent acid drains into soil where children play. A formal recycler's plant — negative-pressure dismantling, filtered ventilation, licensed smelting — exists precisely because these hazards are known. The clinical thread is the toxin, not the gadget: an anaemic child with a raised venous lead level; a recycler with tremor and proteinuria (mercury, cadmium); peripheral neuropathy in an organophosphate-negative worker (lead); Itai-itai's bone pain as the textbook extreme of cadmium. Prevention is hierarchical — route discarded devices through CPCB-registered dismantlers and screen exposed workers with blood lead and urine cadmium. The 2022 rules' EPR credits are the lever: every tonne through a registered recycler is a tonne denied to the drum fire. ## Where this is tested Expect three formats. Toxin matching: CRT with lead, lamps with mercury, circuit boards with cadmium and flame retardants, cable burning with dioxins — the highest-yield pairs. Rule chronology: 2011 introduced, 2016 recast with EPR, 2022 notified with effect from April 2023. Conceptual one-liners: EPR defined from the producer's pocket, the exclusion of lead-acid batteries, and "third-largest e-waste generator" as the India fact. The most likely heavy metal in an anaemic cable-burner (lead); the carcinogen class from PVC combustion (dioxins). Why children are disproportionately harmed: efficient gastrointestinal lead absorption plus a developing nervous system. ## Frequently asked questions ### Which heavy metals dominate e-waste toxicity? Lead from CRT glass and solder, mercury from lamps and displays, cadmium from batteries and boards, plus chromium and beryllium — each with target organs from brain to bone. ### Why is open burning of e-waste particularly dangerous? Burning PVC-insulated cables and brominated plastics releases dioxins, furans and mixed metal fumes — persistent, bioaccumulating carcinogens inhaled at point source. ### What is extended producer responsibility under the 2022 rules? The obligation on producers to finance and organise collection and recycling of a rising share of the electronics they place on the market, evidenced through EPR credits on the CPCB portal. ### How do the 2011, 2016 and 2022 e-waste rules differ? 2011 first mandated take-back; 2016 formalised EPR and targets; the 2022 rules (effective April 2023) add EPR credit trading, compulsory portal registration and environmental compensation. ### Why are children of informal recycling workers at special risk? They absorb lead more efficiently than adults, handle waste directly in home-based units, and face in-utero exposure to dioxins and metals — producing anaemia and neurodevelopmental deficits.