Electronics recycling may be hazardous labor for prison inmates, workers

Computerworld - Breaking rocks is one thing, but breaking monitors is a potential health hazard for federal prisoners and prison employees, according to a government review that faulted safety practices at one correctional facility where electronics equipment is recycled.

For years, according to an initial report written by staffers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), inmates at the federal prison in Elkton, Ohio, recycled monitors, computer chips and other electronics gear used by government agencies without respiratory protection or environmental controls to limit their exposure to lead and cadmium. Critics have claimed that such practices are as bad as what takes place in Third World countries, and there was little in the NIOSH report to disabuse that charge.

The report, dated July 16 and written in the form of a letter to an official in the inspector general's office at the U.S. Department of Justice, has yet to be posted on the NIOSH Web site. But it was made public today (download PDF) by a Washington-based group called Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) that is advocating changes at Elkton and other federal prisons that recycle electronics equipment.

The NIOSH staffers also faulted the medical surveillance at the Elkton facility, saying that it didn't comply with federal safety rules. "No medical exams (including physical examinations) are done on inmates; staff receive inconsistent examinations and biological monitoring by their personal physicians," the report said.

The worst practices occurred before 2003, and safety improvements have been made at Elkton since then, according to NIOSH. But the report recommended a number of other steps that the agency wants to see done to protect prisoners and Elkton employees, including improvements to an exhaust ventilation system and full compliance with all federal occupational safety standards.

NIOSH is also conducting reviews at federal prisons in Texarkana, Texas, and Atwater, Calif., to assist the DOJ's inspector general in an ongoing investigation of the health and safety practices used in the electronics recycling programs at the three facilities. NIOSH's final report will cover its evaluations of all three recycling programs.

The recycling practices used by prison-based operations have been drawing attention from federal employee unions and environmental groups. Jeff Ruch, PEER's executive director, said today that he would like to see the federal government shut down the recycling programs until all the proper safeguards are put in place.

Ruch added that the history of the programs raises accountability issues concerning managers who ignored or suppressed information about the lack of safety procedures. And he claimed that despite the improvements cited by NIOSH, prisoners are still smashing monitors with hammers. "If they are going to do it, they ought to do it right," Ruch said.

PEER's press release about the NIOSH report included a statement from Bill Meek, vice president of the union local that represents workers at the Elkton prison, saying that the report "verifies our concerns" about staff members being exposed to toxins.

Prison officials "started this recycling program knowing that there were dangerous chemicals in these computer monitors, and willfully chose to do so without first putting even the most elementary safety measures in place," said Meek, who was copied on the report. He added that when earlier tests showed that people were being exposed to the chemicals, the answer was to install "an unfiltered exhaust system that blew the contaminants out of the roof, apparently only to be reabsorbed through the institution's air handling systems."

The recycling program is operated by Federal Prison Industries Inc., or UNICOR — an acronym that a spokesman for the government-owned company said is used as a trade name but no longer stands for anything. UNICOR's recycling efforts also have drawn criticism on the ground that the company competes for government contracts through the use of "ultracheap labor and the special privileges and inside connections afforded by its quasi-governmental status," according to a report released in October 2006 by several groups, including the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (download PDF).

UNICOR, which was created by Congress in the 1930s, manufactures a variety of products at prisons, including office furniture, clothing and road signs. The company contends that the work it does lowers recidivism rates among inmates and helps them readjust to society when they leave prison. UNICOR officials didn't immediately respond to questions about the NIOSH report that the spokesman asked be submitted in writing.

Read more about Hardware in Computerworld's Hardware Topic Center.