AfterDawn: News

Greenpeace wants iPhones to have warning labels

The latest round of lawsuits to hit the Cupertino California based Apple include an interesting angle from studies performed by Greenpeace, the environmental group. Their studies show that the plastics used in Apple's iPhone contain a reproductive toxin and carcinogenic known as phthalates.

According to California's Proposition 65, products containing reproductive toxins must either be taken off the market or issued with a warning label stating they can potentially cause cancer. This lawsuit and report stems from studies on the plastics used in the vinyl plastic earphone wiring.



"This isn't a toy. But the overall exposure of the public in general is a problem, especially for children," said Rick Hind, legislative director for Greenpeace's toxics campaign. "It's a reproductive hazard. It could be a kidney hazard."

Apple has 60 days to respond to the lawsuit and has yet to comment on the issues at hand. This lawsuit comes at a time when Apple was just jumping on the environmental bandwagon. Earlier they had faced issues with Trillium Asset Management in which they were persuaded to produce a company wide environmental policy.

Source:
San Jose Mercury

Written by: Dave Horvath @ 16 Oct 2007 15:32

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• 20 comments

• aldan

  greenpeace are a bunch of tree hugging assholes.there are plenty of more serious issues they could be looking at.

  16.10.2007 18:05 #1

• Zidewinde

  Yeah, since when did anyone give a shit about cancer? Oh, wait...

  16.10.2007 18:16 #2

• sk8flawzz

  o0o wow..
  so will the warning come on the packaging or on the phone itself (ewww) hah??
  
  
  

  
  

  16.10.2007 18:55 #3

• chaos_zzz

  apple fans time has comed

  16.10.2007 20:18 #4

• o0cynix0o

  As petty as it mat be it's still funny. It's a green finger in Apple's eye, but a finger none the less. I can just see the label now, "Apple iPhones were made cheap in a third world country by some kid chained to a machine and oh yeah they just might cause cancer."

  16.10.2007 21:15 #5

• sk8flawzz

  well its manufactured by a taiwanese company...is that third world?
  im sure if any kids are doing work in third world countries theyre not chained to anything..they need to be there to make money to feed the family...

  16.10.2007 21:26 #6

• ChiknLitl

  I live in California and I'll say this: They certainly do not take thier "environmental" issues lightly. There are many products in this state that have labels on them that you won't see in other states. It gets a bit riduculous really but that's the culture here.

  16.10.2007 21:58 #7

• ZimHosein

  Quote:According to California's Proposition 65, products containing reproductive toxins must either be taken off the market or issued with a warning label stating they can potentially cause cancer. Even w/ a "warning label," as I'm certain that Apple will not take the iPhone off the CA market, will it really make a difference either way? Look at the sale of cigarettes for example. For years they have been sold w/ a warning label letting consumers "become aware" that smoking causes cancer and yet the cigarette companies seem to be doing okay.

  16.10.2007 23:52 #8

• navi1199

  Quote:Even w/ a "warning label," as I'm certain that Apple will not take the iPhone off the CA market, will it really make a difference either way? Look at the sale of cigarettes for example. For years they have been sold w/ a warning label letting consumers "become aware" that smoking causes cancer and yet the cigarette companies seem to be doing okay.soooooo true, I spoke with a cig. sales rep once, I asked him "Don't you know smoking kills people?, why do you still sell it",
  
  This is what he said and I quote on it,
  "We all die someday."
  
  LMAO!!!

  17.10.2007 04:39 #9

• Fiji5555

  Originally posted by aldan: greenpeace are a bunch of tree hugging assholes.there are plenty of more serious issues they could be looking at.
  Ermmmmmmmm so cancer isn't a serious issue to you I guess and have you looked at what other issues they do get serious about? I doubt you have.

  17.10.2007 14:52 #10

• maryjayne

  Smoking causes cancer??? I did not know that...

  17.10.2007 15:36 #11

• redux79

  So when green peace points out a problem it automatically makes the discussion null and void? The real problem here is that there have been barely any industry standards concerning plastics and polymers for decades. Convenience comes before safety. Everyone knows that burning plastic is poisonous, but few understand the long term effects of being exposed to these various materials.
  
  Obviously putting warning labels on headphones stating that they contain carcinogens seems comical. Potentially poisonous head phones are the least of your worries. There’s a documentary called blue vinyl that shows a direct link between the production of vinyl siding and different rare diseases. One example being Angiosarcoma of the liver, when the steam from the cooling baths is inhaled or the still cooling product touches the skin certain chemicals are released into the blood stream. The liver naturally try's to filter out these toxins, unfortunately the chemicals can not be broken down and concentrate in the liver eventually causing tumors.
  
  These same chemicals can be released when the plastic is melted or heated, for instance in a house fire. People that live near the manufacturing plants show certain levels of these chemical compounds in their blood stream. No one really knows how many products have the potential for these problems and the next big thing is always more important than overall safety concerns.

  17.10.2007 21:20 #12

• WierdName

  A nice kick in the butt for Apple after their whole Ibrick thing. As for the phthalates toxin, would anyone really care? I mean, what about the radio (or whatever) waves it emits, possible eye problems from trying to watch a movie on that little screen, etc. Does anyone really care about those?

  18.10.2007 01:02 #13

• nopcbs

  Greenpeace, while not an actual horse's behind, does occasionally frequently release similar products.
  
  
  
  Try: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phthalates for a nice summary.

  19.10.2007 09:21 #14

• ericg8

  WARNING: DO NOT EAT YOUR iPHONE
  
  Sheesh!

  19.10.2007 13:37 #15

• LaBaMaN

  Originally posted by sk8flawzz: well its manufactured by a taiwanese company...is that third world?
  im sure if any kids are doing work in third world countries theyre not chained to anything..they need to be there to make money to feed the family...so if they are working to take come money home makes it be all right? be reasonable... i don't think so, pal

  19.10.2007 15:05 #16

• pryme_H

  Apple is bombarded with all kinds lawsuits imaginable! I wonder if the iPhone also has Lead (Pb) since it was made in China. LOL!
  

  
  
  

  20.10.2007 10:27 #17

• zorb43

  I am certainly not an advocate of big companies like Apple ... but if it is true that they have recently instated company environmental policys at the urging of environmental groups ... not sure if the "urging" included a legal process or threats of litigation ... seems to me that Green Peace, which I personally dislike for a variety of reasons, foremost their aggressive and sometimes dangerous tactics used as attempts at accomplishing certain environmental goals, ... they could have spoken to the company publicly and directly before spending contributer's hard earned dollars to file suit. They have always notoriously refused to compromise on any of their issues and in my personal estimation, have lowered the organizations credibility. there are many other worthwhile natural resource, animal and wildlife,conservation etc. organizations in this country that perform needed and worthwhile services for it's people and the environment while making plenty of headway and measurable accomplishments, without having to resort to the type of headline garnering media stunts that Green Peace feels it must always do ... I guess because they think it will perpetuate funding by all the in-your-face tree huggers out there..[img]C:\Documents and Settings\Blah B. Blah\My Documents\Animated GIF Pictures\smiley_fire.gif

  20.10.2007 17:08 #18

• borhan9

  Just show greenpeace how the phone could be an asset for them and they would eat it up. On a side note how big is the pic for this article.

  23.10.2007 08:01 #19

• zorb43

  Originally posted by borhan9: Just show greenpeace how the phone could be an asset for them and they would eat it up. On a side note how big is the pic for this article.Not too big at all ... Maybe I did something wrong whilst posting it ...

  23.10.2007 12:54 #20