Zhang Xuedong, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), or China's parliament, has appealed to enact a law to regulate the nation's rapid increasing electronic garbage.

Electronic waste pollution has come to prominence as the life circles of electronic products were greatly shortened over the past few years, Zhang said on the sidelines of NPC's annual session.

He said at least five million computers, ten million cell phones, five million television sets, and four million refrigerators are out of use each year in China.

Meanwhile, a report from the State Environmental Protection Administration says 70 percent of the electronic waste in the world is imported into China each year, and 90 percent of such waste is broken down in small workshops.

Experts believe the workshops tend to apply very basic technology, therefore large amounts of dangerous materials and heavy metals like lead, chromium, and mercury end up getting released into their surroundings.

"The waste severely pollutes the soil, underground water, air and hurt people's health," Zhang said.

He also suggested that the law stipulate compulsory recycling of electronic garbage for the sake of resources saving, and that most developed countries have the laws which require electronic makers to be responsible for the disposal and recycling of electronic waste.

(Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2007)