Tue, 26 Sep 2006 12:00 CDT Have you ever wondered what your
computer is made of? You may not want to know. An analysis by
Greenpeace of the chemicals contained in the components of five
types of laptop computer revealed toxic flame-retardants and
other harmful chemicals in some of them. In one of the
computers, Greenpeace says it found harmful chemicals that the
maker has publicly claimed to have eliminated from its products.
The findings highlight the challenges facing environmental
regulators as they attempt to police the eradication of harmful
chemicals from electronic goods. Failure by the regulators might
not only put users at risk, but also mean chemicals might leach
into groundwater beneath landfills, or contaminate people
working in recycling plants where these machines end their
lives. Greenpeace found the toxic chemicals after analysing just
a handful of the many hundreds of components inside each
computer. Zeina Al-Hajj of Greenpeace says that the discovery of
suspect chemicals in such a limited an