[ BATTERIES AND THEIR HARM ]

When the chemical reaction inside a battery is full, it cannot provide any electricity, hence, become scrap. Scrap batteries contain a huge amount of heavy metal such as manganese, mercury and lead. If users throw batteries away, they can destroy the environment in many ways:

- During incineration, harmful factors inside batteries can create toxic smoke or ashes.

- If batteries are accidentally buried, erosion will happen, along with the penetration of chemicals into soil and underground water. In fact, this consequence can last for 50 years.

We ourselves consume vegetable and fruits planted on polluted soil, drink contaminated water, and then the extremely toxic metal will seriously injure our bodies:

- Lead poisoning can affect brains, bones and kidneys, slowing kids’ development and causing elderly’s hypertension.

- A small amount of mercury can damage brain and reproductive system, make blood vessels constricted or slowly destroy skin and hair…

- Symptoms of zinc poisoning include vomit, intestinal bleeding and paralyzing…

Health consequence from toxic chemicals in batteries can be really dangerous and unpredictable. The first victims of them could be sanitation employees and then the batteries thrower themselves.

Besides, batteries dumping also create a waste of non-reproduced resources. Every year, a nation loses 740 tons of copper, 16000 tons of zinc and 97000 tons of manganese because of this.

Source: VNSEG, Icon56