Cell phones, a menace to society or the savior of your society? Cells phones have been around for more than 10 years now and almost ever person in America has one. Don’t get me wrong, it would be hypocritical for me to say that I don’t depend or love my phone. However, where do we draw the line of just using it for communication vs. using it for useless unsafe fun. When the cell phone came out so did many other problems. One of the least commonly talked about topics that is associated with cell phones is how cell phones affect our environment.

Do you ever wonder where your cell phone goes after you get your upgrade? Well a lot of us keep them for emergency purposes just encase the new phone you got breaks, you could quickly turn back to your old phone. However, mo matter how long you hold on to that old phone they eventually get found in the garbage. You might ask yourself what’s the big deal? Well, the big deal is cell phones contain concentrations of toxic heavy metals and other metals such as: cadmium, lead, nickel, mercury, manganese, lithium, zinc, arsenic, antimony, beryllium, and copper. Cadmium is naturally released to the environment by forest fires and volcanoes, if cadmium was to find away into or water supply it could cause: Diarrhea, stomach pains, and severe vomiting, bone fracture, reproductive failure , damage the immune system, cause psychological disorders, and lastly cause possible DNA damage or cancer. Lead is very dangerous to the human body and also to the environment. every time we are exposed to lead it gets stored into our bodies for the rest of our lives. Lead can lead to nervous system and kidney damage, learning disabilities, speech, language, and behavior problems, poor muscle coordination, decreased muscle and bone growth, hearing damage, and seizures, unconsciousness, and death. And these are only for low levels on lead in children, for high levels in your system you: increase chance of illness during pregnancy, harm to fetus (brain damage, or death), fertility problems, high blood pressure, digestive problems, nerve disorders, memory and concentration problems, muscle and joint pain. Nickel is a little less harmless, however, if you have  to much nickel in your body you can suffer: higher chances of development of lung, nose, and larynx cancer, lung embolism, respiratory failure, birth defects, asthma and chronic bronchitis, and heart disorders. Mercury is one of they most deadly, if mercury was to enter your body a number of things could occur such as: shaking of the hands, eyelids, tongue, or jaw. Also can cause headaches, trouble sleeping, personality change, memory loss, irritability, indecisiveness and loss of intelligence. As you can see these are minor affects, however if exposed for a very long time your internal organs can fail causing death. There is on main reason on how cell phones affect our environment, but there is still more to come.