Greenpeace recently announced that their testing has uncovered two types of hazardous substances in the iPhone, something which has already been eliminated by other mobile phone makers like Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson. <\/p>\n
Greenpeace pointed out in an article on its website that there was no mention of ‘green features’ when the iPhone was launched in June. This may have been part of the reason why the environmental group decided to test the iPhone.<\/p>\n
“So we bought a new iPhone in June and sent it our Research Laboratories in the UK. Analysis revealed that the iPhone contains toxic brominated compounds (indicating the prescence of brominated flame retardants (BFRs)) and hazardous PVC,” the organization points out.<\/p>\n
The ‘environment friendly’ organization highlighted the fact that while the iPhone hype focused on the device’s functionality and potential popularity, little mention was made of the phone's environmental credentials.<\/p>\n
"Steve Jobs has missed the call on making the iPhone his first step towards greening Apple's products," said Zeina Alhajj, Greenpeace International toxics campaigner. <\/p>\n
"It seems that Apple is far from leading the way for a green electronics industry as competitors, like Nokia, already sell mobile phones free of PVC".<\/p>\n
Dr. David Santillo, Senior Scientist at the Greenpeace Research Laboratories, commented, "Two of the phthalate plasticisers found at high levels in the headphone cable are classified in Europe as 'toxic to reproduction, category 2' because of their long-recognised ability to interfere with sexual development in mammals. While they are not prohibited in mobile phones, these phthalates are banned from use in all toys or childcare articles sold in Europe. Apple should eliminate the use of these chemicals from its products range."<\/p>\n
Another criticism leveled at the device is that the iPhone's battery was glued and soldered in to the handset. According to Greenpeace this hinders battery replacement and makes separation for recycling, or appropriate disposal, more difficult, and therefore adds to the burden of electronic waste.<\/p>\n
Apple hits back<\/strong><\/p>\n Apple however hit back, saying that the iPhone complies with the world’s toughest restrictions on toxic substances.<\/p>\n Macworld quotes Apple as saying that “Like all Apple products worldwide, iPhone complies with RoHS [Restriction of Hazardous Substances], the world’s toughest restrictions on toxic substances in electronics. As we have said, Apple will voluntarily eliminate the use of PVC and BFRs by the end of 2008.”<\/p>\n Previously Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that the company is actively preparing to become ‘greener’.<\/p>\n “Apple has been criticized by some environmental organizations for not being a leader in removing toxic chemicals from its new products, and for not aggressively or properly recycling its old products. Upon investigating Apple’s current practices and progress towards these goals, I was surprised to learn that in many cases Apple is ahead of, or will soon be ahead of, most of its competitors in these areas,” Jobs said in an open letter.<\/p>\n “It is generally not Apple’s policy to trumpet our plans for the future; we tend to talk about the things we have just accomplished. Unfortunately this policy has left our customers, shareholders, employees and the industry in the dark about Apple’s desires and plans to become greener.”<\/p>\n In the letter Jobs said that it is the first time Apple has openly discussed their plans to become a greener Apple. “It will not be the last. We will be providing updates of our efforts and accomplishments at least annually, most likely around this time of the year.” <\/p>\n Jobs further pointed out that Apple plans to bring other environmental issues to the table as well, such as the energy efficiency of the products in their industry. According to Jobs the company is also beginning to explore the overall carbon “footprint” of their products, and may have some interesting data and issues to share at a later stage.<\/p>\n Sensitive Issue<\/strong><\/p>\n Consciousness about the protection of the environment is at an all-time high, and with global warming making headlines, companies are often forced into a situation of having to tow the line regarding environmentally hazardous substances.<\/p>\n Consumer buying patterns are also starting to be influenced by these issues which may bode well for companies that are openly ‘green’.<\/p>\n Greenpeace states that Nokia is totally PVC free and that Motorola and Sony Ericsson have products on the market with BFR free components. <\/p>\n “Apple's competitors have also identified extra toxic chemicals they intend to remove in the future – beyond current minimum legal requirements,” Greenpeace states.<\/p>\n With all this pressure mounting, Apple may respond with a greener iPhone as suggested by Greenpeace: “With next month's European launch of the iPhone, Apple should sell a version which is at least as green as the offerings from Sony Ericsson, Nokia and Motorola.”<\/p>\n “Only then can loyal fans of Steve Jobs believe that his promises of a greener Apple will bear any fruit. Right now Steve appears to have any green product news 'on hold',” Greenpeace concludes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Apple claims that its iPhone complies with Restriction of Hazardous Substances regulations, but Greenpeace says that this is not enough as they have uncovered hazardous substances in the device.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cellular"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1643"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1643\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}