TV, Smartphone screens may contaminate home with potentially toxic chemicals

Liquid crystal devices, such as smartphones, televisions, and tablet computers, have become integral tools of modern society; however, people do not know the environmental effects of liquid crystal monomers (LCMs).

An international team of researchers has found that smartphone, television and computer screens may be contaminating your home with potentially toxic chemicals. Sounding the alarm, the researchers found potentially harmful chemicals called liquid crystal monomers used to manufacture screens for devices like smartphones and TVs in nearly half of dozens of samples of household dust they collected.

The findings of the study have been published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"They're supposedly sealed in the screens when they're made, but obviously they do come out," said Prof. John Giesy, a Canada Research Chair in Environmental Toxicology at the University of Saskatchewan.

"The fact that we found them in people's homes indicates that they are being released during the of the products."

Researchers tested dust from seven different buildings in China, ranging from a canteen to a student dormitory to a personal residence. Nearly half of the 53 samples tested positive for the chemicals. The scientists analyzed 362 commonly used liquid crystal monomers and found that nearly 100 could be toxic. They also assessed the toxicity of monomers commonly found in six widely used smartphone models.

"These chemicals are semi-liquid and can get into the environment at any time during manufacturing and recycling, and they are vaporized during burning. Now we also know that these chemicals are being released by the products just by using them," said study leader John Giesy. He is the Canada Research Chair in Environmental Toxicology at the University of Saskatchewan.

"We don't know yet whether this a problem, but we do know that people are being exposed, and these chemicals have the potential to cause adverse effects," Giesy said in a university news release.

"There are currently no standards for quantifying these chemicals, and no regulatory standards," Giesy said. "We are at ground zero."

The paper includes significant findings that should trigger more research, according to George Cobb, chair of the department of environmental science at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Cobb, who wasn't part of this study, has done dust studies in the past to test for other chemicals.

For further reference log on to :

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915322116