By Dele Ogunseitan
“The measurements of the costs of health impairing pollution depend on the foregone earnings from increased morbidity and mortality. From this point of view a given amount of health impairing pollution should be done in the country with the lowest cost, which will be the country with the lowest wages. I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that.”
“I’ve always though[t] that under-populated countries in Africa are vastly UNDER-polluted, their air quality is probably vastly inefficiently low compared to Los Angeles or Mexico City.”
– Lawrence H. Summers (current Head of the Obama Administration’s White House Economic Council). Dated December 12, 1991 – As Chief Economist of the World Bank.
As long as Mr. Larry Summers holds public office, the content of the memo that he signed as Chief economist of the World Bank in 1991 will continue to haunt him. Although his subsequent successes in gaining high profile positions suggests that he has disavowed himself of the views expressed in the memo, it is necessary to keep asking if these views remain unspoken but potent international policy effectors. For example, it is difficult to explain why, among the member of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States remains the only country that has not ratified the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Waste and their Disposal (http://www.basel.int/). Without doubt, this loophole has contributed to the exportation of toxic electronic waste (e-waste) from the U.S. to countries where the infrastructure for safe disposal or recycling is not well developed. The Basel Action Network has documented major environmental pollution resulting from disposal in the notorious Alaba market in Lagos, Nigeria (http://www.ban.org/). Similar problems probably exist in Ghana, Kenya, and other Sub-Sahara African countries where the ambition to support rapid economic development through the electronic product revolution has fueled a growing market in “used” consumer products imported from affluent countries.
Where clandestine importation of toxic waste is clearly documented, international law prescribes punishments for both exporters and importers. But the problem with e-waste is that the hazardous nature of the shipment is often disguised by the label of “recyclable products” or “second-hand” consumer products sold at a discount or given free to aid “poor” communities. Such products may include used computers, cell-phones, television sets, and personal digital assistants. This humanitarian gesture has probably contributed substantially to local networking infrastructure in many African schools and villages, but such used products work properly for a few years at best. Without the personnel and equipment to properly repair or dispose of defunct electronics, they end up as hazardous waste in open pits, leaching toxic chemicals into soils and streams, and contaminating the air upon incineration. It is probably too drastic to recommend the cessation of humanitarian aid in the form of electronic products, but such aid should be accompanied by support for proper recycling technologies at the local level. Doing this will remove suspicions associated with the perception of Africa as an “under-polluted” wasteland as articulated in Larry Summer’s unfortunate memo.
Dele is Professor of Public Health and Professor of Social Ecology, College of Health Sciences in the School of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine. Contact him at oladele.ogunseitan@uci.edu.
See a recent article about Dele’s work on e-waste.