Wha happen?!
Bloops! It seems the gas inside flat-panel displays, Nitrogen Trifluoride (NF3), is 17,000 times better than CO2 when it comes to trapping heat in the atmosphere. The gas isn’t very prevalent yet but just wait until we start throwing away our old HDTVs to get OLEDs. Best of all, “has a characteristic mouldy smell and is thought to be highly harmful to the liver and kidneys.” Tasty!
While flat-screen manufacturers are talking up their greenness, what we really need to know is their NF3 use and energy efficiency. It will be interesting to see how long this issue lasts until someone does something about it.
Looks like I’m not getting an HDTV anytime soon. I really hope they fix this thing soon
I feel bad for the Indians who will be recycling our first world e-waste for scrap metal. This won’t affect us but I would expect a lot of additional health problems for those poor folks.
Jon
http://woodmarvels.com - Create Unique Memories!
Im sorry but USA has been shipping rubbish to china for years, be it e-waste or normal household rubbish.
My reading of the article is that the gas is used in the LCD production process, not contained inside the TV as you report. This means that the problem is ongoing, rather than that building up waiting for the disposal of existing HD TVs.
Also, it would suggest that all flat panels are involved, so that probably includes flat-screen monitors, not just HD TVs. I have no idea what the proportion of monitors to TVs is in the world.
And don’t break your -plasma- TV, because the stuff in there is hot as the sun! (A co-worker actually convinced someone this was true - LOL!)
I am amazed at how this religion of the Church of Global Warming is taking over society. I can already see The Inquisition coming by Global Warming Police forcing you to use tricycles, bankrupt you via exorbitant killer taxes, putting your business/job out of business, and turning you into a Socialist/Marxist by force. You will have no more power of choice except to attend their services.
(Never mind that the Antarctic region is expanding (press doesn’t tell you this), never mind that there are thousands of scientists that get shut up, never mind that the seas are cooling, etc., etc……
Samuel Lopez De Victoria, Ph.D.
http:www.DrSam.tv
Electronic waste is a rather serious problem (http://blog.talkingphilosophy.com/?p=330). Of course, electronics are a critical part of modern civilization. For example, without computers you’d not be reading this blog.
What a worthless, content-free article. You couldn’t be bothered to even fact-check enough to find out which “flat-panel” technologies present these, apparently world-ending, dangers?
For the record. NF3 is a gas used in the production of LCD flat panels and is not found inside of the flat panel that is sitting on your desk. It is used to clean the chambers where the flat panels are fabricated. NF3 is a “green” replacement for the gases that were traditionally used, such as carbon tetrafluoride, hexafluoro ethane and SF6. Because the breakdown of NF3 in the production process is greater than 99%, very little gas is rejected from the chamber and what gas is, is broken down into nitrogen and fluorides and captured in a waste water stream. This contrasted with the other fluorocarbons mentioned earlier that were very hard to break down and thus were vented into the atmosphere. SF6 is much worse than NF3 when it comes to greenhouse gas global warmig. As far as the toxicity, NF3 is about as toxic as moth balls. Also, electronic grade NF3 is odorless. That’s right, just like nitrogen, you can’t smell it. The exact means of how NF3 damages the human body is not known for certain. But, even nitrogen at high enough concentrations will kill. In fact, there are more deaths in industry due to nitrogen asphyxiation than all of the know deaths (zero) ever caused directly by NF3. How would I know - I have been in the manufacture of electronic gases such as NF3 for over 20 years.
Very funny, but as I can see, the NF3 is not so harmfull like you said… anyway… any waste is not good…
“In fact, there are more deaths in industry due to nitrogen asphyxiation than all of the know deaths (zero) ever caused directly by NF3.”
nitrogen asphyxiation? The air we breathe is 79% nitrogen. Surely it’s not the nitrogen that kills you in that case, it’s the lack of oxygen?