Students decked out in Hazmat suits on the Mall yesterday had a mission: to show their peers that computers could kill.
The students, who wore the Hazmat suits to protect themselves from "toxic computer parts" on a nearby table, were members of the Arizona Student Recycling Association, and the suits were used to attraction attention to the national Computer TakeBack Campaign.
Rob Wild, president of ASRA and a physics senior, said many students aren't aware of how toxic discarded computers are to the environment.
Alex Perwin, a pre-business junior, said the suits were worn to demonstrate that computer waste is dangerous.
"Education is the biggest way to help change," Perwin said.
Members of ASRA asked students to sign a petition, and wore the hazardous material response suits to protest the disposal of computers. The petitions and the suits will be sent to Michael Dell, chief executive officer for Dell Computers.
Wild said Dell Computers, along with other computer companies, sends old computers to agencies that ship them to foreign countries where they are improperly discarded.
Emily Kara, an environmental science senior, said the restrictions on computer disposal are not as stringent in developing countries, and various toxins end up in the water supply.
As a result, Laura Showalter, vice president of ASRA and biology sophomore, said citizens of other countries are dying.
Wild said the petitions will hopefully get Dell to produce less toxic computer parts, recycle responsibly and take back computers from users for free, rather than charging consumers a $15 fee.
Wilson Hughes, a waste reduction planner for the City of Tucson Environmental Services, said proper computer disposal is a labor-intensive process, and is done overseas at a cheaper cost.
"But the toxins in computers are not benign chemicals," Hughes said.
According to an ASRA handout, overexposure to the mercury from the light bulbs in a computer's flat display panel may result in brain and kidney damage, while barium in the front panel can cause brain swelling, muscle weakness, and heart, liver and spleen damage. In addition, each computer monitor contains 4 to 8 pounds of lead, and chromium on the steel plates can cause DNA damage and asthmatic bronchitis.
Alana Levine, program coordinator for Recycling and Waste Management and faculty adviser for ASRA, said the petitions and Hazmat suits are an effective grass-roots technique for raising awareness and initiating change.
"It was student activism against Nike and sweatshops that caused change," Hughes said.
Wild said the national campaign is already making progress and has caught the attention of Michael Dell, who stopped shipping to companies that use prison labor last summer.
According to International Data Group News Service, in July, Dell dropped Unicor, a federally owned company that employs prison laborers, choosing instead to use computer-recycling programs.
On campus, the Hazmat suits garnered attention from curious students passing through the Mall.
"Technology is eating people alive because it keeps changing," said Eslir Musta, an economics junior, who signed the petition.
Levine said the rapid change in technology causes an increasing number of computers to become obsolete, so people keep throwing them away.
ASRA members also handed out fliers informing students of places to recycle, sell or donate their old computers.
To learn more about the Computer TakeBack Campaign, visit computertakeback.com.