“The huge rise of autism in Britain is linked to old iPod batteries, mobile phones and other products of the electronic age, a leading scientist claimed this weekend,” The Express On Sunday reports via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge.
The Express On Sunday reports, “Autistic children have been shown to have problems getting rid of toxic metals – and those metals are increasingly polluting the environment, says Dr Richard Lathe. ‘Think of iPod batteries, computers, television sets and mobile phones – thousands of them tossed aside without any thought to their proper disposal,’ says the molecular biologist, who specialises in research into autism and other brain disorders.”
“In the wake of this week’s reports that autism has shot up to a record high of one per cent of the population, Dr Lathe is about to publish his own shock results from a study of hundreds of children in France,” The Express On Sunday reports. “More than half those who were autistic were found to have a marker of heavy metal in their urine, he says. ‘Couple this with a study published last month showing a correlation between mercury release into the environment and autism rates in Texas, and yet another study showing that autistic children have a problem getting rid of mercury through their hair, and you have a substantial body of evidence.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: In related news, a man tipped over while canoeing this past Saturday on the Hudson River. The man swam safely to shore, but the canoe sank and was lost. The man has been an Apple iPod owner since 2004.
Did you know that Apple rechargeable batteries actually provide a better solution for both your pocketbook and the planet? If your iPod were powered by 4-AA Alkaline batteries and you used just one pack per week (conservative estimate), after two years you would have spent over $200 and piled up 400 dead, potentially autism-causing batteries.
MacDailyNews Note: FYI for iPod Owners: Your one year warranty includes replacement coverage for a defective battery. You can extend your coverage to two years with AppleCare Protection Plan. During the second year, Apple will replace the battery if it drops below 50% of its original capacity. If it is out of warranty, Apple offers a battery replacement for $59, plus $6.95 shipping. Apple disposes your battery in an environmentally-friendly manner. More info here.
Will ENOUGH of this kind of crapola EVER be ENOUGH?
“Mommy, make them stop!”
MacDailyNews are idiots! A man sinking his canoe has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with owning an Apple iPod!!!
ahahah brandon your an idiot…
Autism is caused by mercury in vaccines and other stuff in vaccines
Don’t get yourself vaccinated!
This is a problem that pre dates the iPod, but using the iPod name is simply a lure. Sadly, we are responsible for quite a few of the deseases our children endure, suffer and die from.
brandon,
Lemme guess, you use your iPod with a Windows PC, right?
Feldstein,
ROTFLMFAO! Ouch!
While the headline and the first sentence of the article are sensationalist, and the rest is unproven, at least one heavy metel has definately been shown to cause emotional and mental problems, particularly in children. Lead, anyone?
iPods are killers… children are autistic, canoes are sinking! Aaaahhh!
May be the scientist need to look at where the batteries are coming from. People complain about user not being able to replace the batteries on iPod and now some people are starting to complain iPod batteries being replaced by unqualified people. Apple cannot win on this one.
BTW, how many people are throwing their Dell laptop computer batteries into landfills?
MY GOD! Once again Apple are the fscking shining light of the world! APPLE ARE NOT THE BENEVOLENT COMPANY YOU THINK! THEY MAKE GREAT PRODUCTS – THEY ARE A FSCKING COMPANY! FOR THE LORDS SAKE, GET A DAMNED LIFE!
That is an EXTREMELY dangerous urban legend that has been investigated and debunked by several major studies. These were conducted by leading independent physicians and researchers. If you care about your children, get them vaccinated.
Jake
NEXT: iPod causes Acne in teenagers!
If iPods would just make kids unable to reproduce until they were 21 we’d have a really useful item.
Our friendship with this cow that lives across the hall, went south just around the time our family got our first iPod.
Coincidence?
I think not.
LOL
Where is the Paradise the world promised me and my children?
There’s risk everywhere! Things aren’t perfect! There’s still poverty! I get hangnails if I don’t work on my manicure!
Woe is me! Mea culpa, mea culpa!
What’s a little lead or nickle going to hurt anyone.
I think that the gist of this article is simply:
Recycle your hi-tech devices.
We’ve known for a while that batteries and other devices with heavy metals pose a danger to the environment – specifically polluting underground sources of water. Bottom line: Recycle.
Remember that “iPod” and “Pod” have become household terms that no longer, or strictly, represent the product from which the terms originally came.
As for heavy metals, make no mistake, all of the research points emphatically to the connection between them and faulty human mental faculties. Make no mistake about this either – No human being can, in any way shape or form, metabolize heavy metals. All human beings have a nearly impossible task of elliminating toxic metals from their systems once ingested, not just autistic children. The article opens with a statement that implies this is a problem with just autistic children. Obviously developmental issues are a major concern with children, but if an adult gets a good accumulation of nickle-metal-hydride in their system, they will be a very sick, and most likely, permanently sick puppy.
From this perspective I’m glad to pay Apple the extra $$ for a custom battery because it helps the company manage the more toxic of its products wastes in a more tangible way.
– MacDailyNews are idiots! A man sinking his canoe has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with owning an Apple iPod!!! –
Maybe Brandon IS the scientist.
In other news, the Israeli army has attacked Lebanon again today after a member of Hezbollah was found to have stolen the iPod of an Israeli child.
Apparently all world strife and conflict is iPod related. People will believe this crap and yet fail to see that there is actually a global warming crisis.
selective hearing i guess.
Not a mere uban legend, but needs further HONEST research.
That’s not likely to happen in he USA though. For example: the Homeland Security Act includes a rider immunizing Eli Lilly from liability for any damage caused by thimerosal containing vaccines (TCV).
Considering the risks to children, better to err on the side of further research, no?
References:
EvidenceOfHarm.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kirby
—————————-
That said: RECYCLE your iPod at an Apple Store and get 10% off a new model.
Fast Forward to June 2007:
There has been a rise in masterbation in Britain, mostly due to Apple video iPods. The iPods must be the blame.
Alex – try the decaf.
“If iPods would just make kids unable to reproduce until they were 21 we’d have a really useful item.”
Or perhaps if it would prevent people like the poster named ‘alex’ from reproducing at all, then maybe the gene pool would improve.
brandon, you need to learn to use the available Emoticons as some of the people using this forum wouldn’t know sarcasm (or any other subtly form of humor) unless it included a prat-fall.
Back on-topic: I’m sure iPod usage – or, more precisely disposal – is at least slightly to blame for at least a few of those additional cases of autism. That said, where does this “Doctor” Latham chap come off identifying the iPod by name when there are several brands of cell phones whose disposal are a greater contributor?
=> there are more cell phones than iPods
=> many more cell phones are disposed of daily than are iPods
=> cell phones have been around longer than iPods
Given any, much less all, of the above, Latham was irresponsible in singling out the iPod for top billing. It’s a Brit thing, tearing down #1 – just because. Odds are Latham uses – and has disposed of – cell phones but neither uses nor approves of iPods.
AG Pennypacker, a wealty industrialite links toxic PCs to insane blokes who write fud about Apple iPods and his equally whacked-out editor allows it.
macromancer – You can’t regulate volcanoes, one of the biggest causes of global warming, you CAN misdirect and regulate almost anything else, especially the public.
Ok I admit it: I’m an idiot.
macromancer:
Selective listening goes both ways since you believe there is actually global warming. The man who originally coined the phrase and wrote the paper on global warming over 30 years ago (and no, it wasn’t Al Gore as you probably have been told) has backed off that statement in recent years.
We are on this planet for such a small amount of time. How can anyone possibly predict this sort of stuff without being a meteorologist? Meteorologists today believe there is more of a chance of an ice age than there is a global warming issue. Studies have shown (don’t ask me for the data, please) that there is an ice age about every 10,000 years and that the last one was over 12,000 years ago.
Wow. Just because it mentions the word iPod, people jump to attack this study.
The headline here is incredibly misleading, MDN — misdisposal of electronic devices, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IPODS, can’t be a healthy thing.
This just in:
Accordingly, autism has been
linked to the favoritism toward
socialism in th EU.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”tongue rolleye” style=”border:0;” />
Read this article: “Water’s Nice, But Not as Ice”
http://www.anxietycenter.com/warning/main.htm
I like the quote:
“Nature doesn’t care where you live or what you drive.”
Not too far from the truth, it is obvious that using Windows causes a decrease in intelligence.
Common municipal recommendation –
Battery Type: Alkaline
Common Name: Coppertop, Alkaline
Sizes Available: AAA, AA, C, D, 6V, 9V
Examples of Use: Flashlights, calculators, toys, clocks, smoke alarms, remote controls
Proper Disposal: Place in the trash
Materials which are not “heavy metals”:
– Lithium (as in Lithium-Ion)
– Nickel (as in Nickel-Metal-Hydride)
– the various metals used in the “hydride” part of NiMH
All these metals are toxic to some degree in large doses, but none of them suffer from the accumulation problem seen with mercury, cadmium, or lead.
Anyway, autism is usually hereditary and the increase in autism can be attributed to a pronounced increase in breeding among autistic individuals due to various sociological changes.
This was a stupid story about nothing except to try and blame the Apple iPod for something that is totally not controlled by Apple. If the UK is not evironmentally responsible the government should be blamed not Apple’s iPod. Whomever wrote this story was obviously an iPod hater trying to put out bad press about the obvious. It is not the iPod that is solely to blame for this as there are many portable devices that use batteries that would do the same, and have the same ill effects if not worse. I still have to 5gig original iPods with there orginal batteries that still work after 4 years of use. Versus those electronic items that use AA batteries which need to be replaced every two weeks or less. You tell me what creates more hazardous waste and I’ll tell you it is not the iPod by a mile!
How many canoes have to sink before you people come to your senses? Me, I prefer to be part of the solution instead of the problem. I only listen to vinyl.
It isn’t the iPods or other devices that are polluting the environment — it’s the morons who pitch them in the trash and think nothing of it. Get rid of your shit properly. Guns don’t cause autism, people who throw out iPods in the garbage cause autism.
Yeah, ‘cos there are so many more iPods than mobile phones. Mobile Phones are essentially disposable at this point.
I recently read a anti-GW article (Wall Street Journal?)that not only gave enough information to suggest that the “slam dunk” cause is man-made is not correct, but also stated that with our current level of technological ability to cut emissions and the realistic continuation use of the technology that PARTLY causes it(fossil fuel power plants, private autos, etc.), there is not enough money, desire, or technical ability to change whatever is going to happen anyway.
The real “inconvenient truth” is that Al Gore is wrong, particularly, when China and India are exempt from complying with Kyoto at all. Why do you think fuel and raw material prices have gone through the roof? Chinese and Indian econominc development with essentially no pollution controls at all.
Jake writes: “That is an EXTREMELY dangerous urban legend that has been investigated and debunked by several major studies. These were conducted by leading independent physicians and researchers. If you care about your children, get them vaccinated.”
“Debunked” only by the vaccine producers, not by unbiased scientific researchers.
While a link to autism may be circumstantial and unproved, it is beyond dispute that most vaccines contain mercury, that there is no safe level of mercury in the body, and that children are more susceptible to mercury toxicity because of their smaller body mass.
Vaccines also commonly contain formaldehyde and other toxins. We require that the foods we buy list their ingredients; surely we should require the same for something which bypasses the digestive tract and is injected directly into the body!
Vaccines are far from safe or risk free. They should have warning labels, just like cigarettes, and parents should be required to read and sign them before having their kids vaccinated. Parents are entitled to full disclosure; the risks of vaccines should be made known to them before their kids get jabbed.
The MDN take has to be one of the most stupid and insensitive I’ve ever seen.
– Fact: Batteries contain highly toxic chemicals
That’s about the only fact you need to know because one way or another those chemical will find there way into the human body and not everyone has as thick a skull as the MDN crew with which to shield themselves from these chemicals.
People who ridicule this kind of research do so because they don’t want to change their habits and look for ways to dismiss the threat.
“If iPods would just make kids unable to reproduce until they were 21 we’d have a really useful item.”
And if they did the Religious Right would be shreiking to have them outlawed because they would claim that they encourage promiscuity (as if any encouragement was needed!).
This is such bullshit. Autism is indeed strongly correllated to heavy metal pollution, however it is not caused by iPods (or any other music player for that matter). These players contain(ed) heavy metals, indeed. However it takes quite a long time for these to end up in the environment and in such concentrations to cause any damage. Furthermore, in order to devellop autism a child needs to be subjected to extreme doses in order to cause such defects. Unless you feed your batteries to a newborn, this is not going to happen. The real reason for this rise in toxic heavy metals in children (most notably mercury) is due to the fact that inoculations for a variety of deseases are heavily mercury based. In other words, we are poisoning our own children in the quest to rid the world of certain deseases. Some of these deseases are extremely dangerous, however the drug companies have yet to find the motivation or incentives to invent better vaccines. As such, when you think you are helping your children, you are in effect exposing them to the risk of autism.
“Childhood vaccines contain doses of mercury that are in excess of the Federal Safety Guidelines, and evidence shows a link between these excessive doses of mercury, found in thimerosal-containing vaccines, and neurodevelopment disorders such as autism and speech disorders, as well as heart disease, according to a study.”
One group that interestingly enough has not been hit by the increased rate of autism is the Amish. The difference between them and many other goups is that they generally do not vaccinate their children.
In other news, Bush caught on tape swearing during the closing lunch at the Group of Eight summit.
As his voice picked up by a microphone, Bush expressed his frustration with with his iPod that his playlists have not been updated. “See the irony is that what they [Bush assistants] need to do is get my music right and to stop doing this s— and it’s over,” Bush told Blair as he chewed on a buttered roll.
Jay – You talk like a Republican: ill informed and in denial.
Regardless of what Al Gore says (haven’t seen the movie nor heard his speech), the evidence that global warming is man-made is incontrovertible. There are lots of slick-talking oil hucksters out there still denying GW exists, or that we have caused it, just as the tobacco industry denied for decades that smoking caused cancer.
As for China and India, the US still emits more greenhouse gases than either of these. We should be setting an example for other nations, not leading the world into denial and inaction. There are signs, however, that China may yet become a green nation.
But you could be right about one thing: We may lack the collective will to do anything about it.
Global Warming may be a myth. Weather records don’t exist for anywhere near a long enough time span for which to be useful. This may just be a normal temp fluctuation. One volcano eruption emitted more “greenhouse gases” than every automobile ever driven.
We have evidence, but not enough data upon which to do more than guess.
Yes but Windows causes users to develop Tourets Syndrome!
Cheers,
Tim.
How long have iPods been around? 5 years? And they’re the cause of my friend’s son’s autism for 13 years? I don’t think so…
Yeah, environmental pollution (especially groundwater pollution) might be the cause of a lot of ills…but all that means is that we have to dispose of things in a smarter way than just to throw them in the trash. In California, cell phone stores now have to provide a box for folks to place their old phones when they upgrade; the phones are either converted to 911-only phones and given to women in abusive relationships, or they’re recycled. Why can’t electronic stores do something similar? Perhaps usable iPods can be converted into something useful for low-income folks or the disabled, like loading audio textbooks for visually impaired students (if Apple or someone could come up with some sort of audio cue so you know you’re accessing the right book, that would be cool), or dead iPods could just be recycled.
As for the global warming issue — sure, some of the current global warming might be a natural cycle, but it doesn’t mean we have to help it along by brainless activity…
iPods cause artism, not autism. Stoopid “journalists.”
@ Delphi – We have average temperature records and atmospheric carbon info dating back hundreds of thousands of years via Arctic and Antarctic ice core samples. Natural planetary cycles are on much shorter time-spans (around 10,000 years or so). At no time during the last half million years have atmospheric carbon concentrations been anywhere near as high as they are now, nor risen as rapidly as they have in the last two centuries. During the last half million years, we know of a number of significant volcanic eruptions, yet they all failed to raise carbon concentrations at anywhere near the rate of the rise since the industrial revolution.
The evidence is really very clear and incontrovertible. We really do know that global warming is real and that human activity is responsible for it.
You can expect to see special interest groups continue to spread their FUD about global warming, just as the tobacco industry did for decades about the effects of smoking. But the jury is already in and a verdict rendered, no matter what lies are told to the contrary.
“Vaccines are far from safe or risk free. They should have warning labels, just like cigarettes, and parents should be required to read and sign them before having their kids vaccinated. Parents are entitled to full disclosure; the risks of vaccines should be made known to them before their kids get jabbed.”
Okay, and right after they read that, they can read the risks involved if their children contract polio, meningitis, tetanus, and all the other diseases that the vaccines prevent.
“One group that interestingly enough has not been hit by the increased rate of autism is the Amish. The difference between them and many other goups is that they generally do not vaccinate their children.”
Really? Wow, I didn’t know that the Amish are exactly like everyone else except they don’t vaccinate. That’s ridiculous; in fact, they do not use any of the high-tech devices mentioned in this article. So the Amish are a particularly bad example to use for your argument.
Gee, I guess they must be using extra vaccine in Silicon Valley. Why else the huge rise in autism there compared to everywhere else?
A person who refuses to vaccinate a child in fear of autism is as much an idiot as the one who refuses to vaccinate a child from cervical cancer in fear that she will suddenly become a huge slut.
In light of this crisis, I am forming a company to gather all the toxic iPods and other high-tech devices. Just mail your electronic equipment to me, and I will process them at no charge to you. If you would like to donate to support this endeavor, I will also be setting up a PayPal account for that soon. Do it for our children!
Unrelated to my above post, does anyone have any tips on successfully running a store on eBay?
Heavy metals cause autism. Mercury is the biggest offender. Mercury is in children’s tooth fillings.
Mercury is also very prevalent in lakes and streams. It gets concentrated, through the food chain, in the fish we eat. It gets into the environment from pulp and paper mills. The biggest users of paper are newspapers.
The newspaper behind this story is way more responsible for autism in children than Apple’s iPod ever will be.
Ironic, isn’t it.
‘Think of iPod batteries, computers, television sets and mobile phones – thousands of them tossed aside’..
Who tosses iPods!?!? Not me
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> we have a waiting list of family members who are eager and anxious to get our old ones when we update
rasterbator you assume too much. Not everyone goes to see an Al Gore movie or Michael Moore film and knee-jerks into a response.
I find it funny how much you felt like you needed to write to refute what I wrote. Perhaps turning of Fox News and going out and talking to actual people would be a good idea.
YIKES!!
Do some research people. UCLA and others have proven that there is no causal link between the mercury in vaccines and increased autism rates. (Much of the increase in autism is actually caused by a greater tendency to diagnose and label it. My wife works with autistic children.) There is a FAR greater health risk to families when they do not vaccinate than there is from the vaccine itself. The past few years has seen a rise in childhood diseases due to parents believing this bunk and not getting their children vaccinated.
Re: Global Warming. The jury is still out. (However, it is scientific and political suicide to deny it.) The biggest problem is that we tend to believe that life and the environment is constant. And that change is abnormal. Thus, if there is change there must be a cause. Various interest groups find it convenient to blame greenhouse gases regardless of the data. Like high heavy metal levels in autistic children (it may be there but is it causal?), discovering true cause and effect is hard to determine.
the other mark : sums up exactly what I think on both of these subjects. Does anyone so fervantly believing in man-made GW realize that just 20 years ago, a large portion of the scientific community were as concerned abot the coming Ice Age (I’m NOT kidding-Ice Age) as certain sectors are about GW now? Newsweek Magazine almost had a stroke over it.
And by the way, contrary to Q’s comment, i’m a member of the Democratic Party. GW is real-it’s the so-called ” incontrovertible” man-made part that gives me heartburn. It might be the ONLY Republican position I agree with. Oh, besides getting rid of the Inheritance tax.
It must be George Bush’s fault. Wait Al Gore is the one on Apple’s board!
“the evidence that global warming is man-made is incontrovertible”
Incontrovertible seems questionable in the case of GW http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/harris061206.htm
“Appearing before the Commons Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development last year, Carleton University paleoclimatologist Professor Tim Patterson testified, “There is no meaningful correlation between CO2 levels and Earth’s temperature over this [geologic] time frame. In fact, when CO2 levels were over ten times higher than they are now, about 450 million years ago, the planet was in the depths of the absolute coldest period in the last half billion years.” Patterson asked the committee, “On the basis of this evidence, how could anyone still believe that the recent relatively small increase in CO2 levels would be the major cause of the past century’s modest warming?”
Jay,
Republicans have a lot more to offer than the two items you just listed. The democrats are ready surrender for Isreal right now. I want to know how do you negotiate with lunatics that’s whole purpose to exist is to wipe you off the face of the earth. They want to get rid of Isreal first then the West. The same crap spewed from Democrats is what went on with Hitler. Europe trying to appease him. Look how well that worked.
Burn baby burn! – Disco inferno!
Burn baby burn! – Burn that mother down, yoh!
Burn baby burn! – Disco inferno!
Burn baby burn! – Burn that mother down
Burnin’!
Unfortunately, the inability to understand the rest of the world, and therefore rationally deal with the rest of the world, particularly those parts of the world with different cultures, is not confined to the Republicans. I don’t suggest for a minute any Democrat has the answers to the Mideast or terrorism situations. I’m not that partisan. The problem is that as Americans we simply can not, or will not, accept the possibility that the US doesn’t have all the answers, or
r that our system of government and beliefs is right for everyone. It’s just at the moment we have a administration with way too much hubris, and belief that the “American Way” is the only way and it’s just the ignorant dumb ass “fureners” that don’t get it.
I’m not sure we’d be in any different circumstances with a Democrat in the White House. ( I think you can see I’m cynical). It’s not that I dislike Republicans; I don’t care for politicians. And I’m pro-Isreal. What’s going on now is about getting rid of Hamas not getting hostages back, but I think they’ve gone too far. But I don’t go to bed at night worrying about bombers or rockets either.
As far as the negotiating goes, and depending on your persuation, I don’t think we can negotiate or kill them fast enough to make a difference one way or the other. Radical Islamic beliefs are too strong for either to work. We are trying to change the strongest belief system in the world in the Middle East and that it flat is not going to happen. The North Vietnamese stated that they would been willing to sacrifice everyone in North Vietnam if that’s what it took to get the US out of there. There is no simple, political sound bite answer to fantacism.
Lumping iPods in with mercury’s effects on autism is completely unfounded in science. Regular uh-rechargeable batteries (9-volt, AAA, AA, C, and D) are technically known as magnanese-dioxide/zinc but are more commonly known as “carbon/zinc” batteries. Still, they contain a little bit of mercury (they used to contain more). Old watch and hearing aid batteries can still be purchased that are flat-out based on mercury (bad for the environment). But the iPod’s use a lithium-based chemistry and to my knowledge, there isn’t even a smidgin of mercury in those.
What there IS though in most consumer electronics is solder and usually (but not always) solders contain lead. It is possible to use non-lead solders and it is possible the iPod might even have these in their construction. But I haven’t seen lead linked to autism—just mercury. And that’s a big deal because a mercury compound had been used in the past as a preservative for vaccines for infants.
Anyway, to my thinking, iPod ≠ autism.
P.S. Funny, my “MDN Magic Word” was “truth.”
Nobody throws away iPods – they live forever on eBay. I have 2 old iPods – still working fine but not as cool as my Nano so I don’t use them. Am I going to toss them in the trash? No!
Small point:
LCD monitors contain very small amounts of mercury used in the backlight inverters to illuminate the panels. Supposedly these amounts are so low that they are not hazardous to the “user”. Get enough of ’em in a landfill and………………. Why can’t toxic substances just be our friends? Will they negotiate?
I seriously doubt that iPods are more to blame than cell phones or computers when it comes to environmental pollution. Even if iPod is a generic term, they still pale when compared to cell phones and computers. Geez.
The only people who think that GW evidence is settled, incontrovertible, or otherwise settled beyond all reasonable doubt are not scientists. Real scientists cannot be absolutists, because all of the data is never in. This leaves the “GW as religion” to people who are busy pushing the cause-de-jour because they want to boss others around and find themselves empty inside. Go talk to China, India, and Brazil, guys. Then when you’ve fixed the real polluters, talk to the U.S, Britian, France and the rest of the West.
Americans have to be one of the most guilt-ridden people in the world.
The egotistical belief that everything is “our” fault (guilt) leads us directly to us feeling responsible for every world complaint or problem. Thus, trying to solve global warming, problems in Iraq/Iran etc.
And for those who don’t remember (the Bush-bashers) don’t forget Clinton brought us the Serbian conflict and Somalia. In the former, our reluctance to react quickly resulted in massive loss of life. Now, I’m not trying to say that GWB is doing great. It’s just that it is much easier to be a Monday Morning Quarterback than it is to make difficult decisions on limited information. And being President, regardless of political affiliation, is an extremely difficult job.
As a poster of Respectful Insolence comments, iPod batteries use Lithium-ion technology, they wouldn’t work if they contained mercury. So they can hardly contribute that particular heavy metal to the environment.
Professor Lathe quality of research is less than impressive.