The lead content of domestic dry batteries is generally higher than 25%, which can not meet the requirements of "green batteries". Moreover, the dry batteries separated and recovered from garbage in China are only about 10% of the output.
The pollution of heavy metals such as lead in waste batteries to soil and water sources is only a short-term hazard, but it is a potential long-term hazard to the ecological environment. The soil has certain pores. After degrading organic matter or compounds containing carbon, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur, it can produce non-toxic or low-toxic substances, showing a certain self-purification ability. However, heavy metals such as mercury, lead and cadmium are not easy to be removed after entering the environment and accumulate in the soil for a long time. Destroy the self-purification ability of nature, make soil a "repository" of pollutants, and finally reduce soil fertility. When planting crops in such soil, heavy metals will be sucked into plants by plant roots, resulting in crop yield reduction or harm to crops. The heavy metals in the soil can continue to migrate to the adjacent environmental media, be washed and infiltrated into the deep soil by rainwater, and enter the river water source with groundwater. Once people drink this kind of water, there will be chronic damage to multiple system organs.
According to Li Donghong, a senior engineer in the solid waste room of Shenyang Institute of Environmental Science, the batteries used in daily life generate electricity through chemical action, or corrosion in general, and the waste batteries containing heavy metals produced through this action are quite harmful.
A piece of 1 battery can make 1 square meter of land useless, and a piece of button cell can pollute 600,000 liters of water (this is the water consumption of a person's life).
According to relevant data, 50% of the global cadmium pollution comes from the pollution of waste batteries. Drinking cadmium-contaminated water for a long time will lead to bone changes and anemia, and the typical performance is bone ache all over the body. Chromium can cause gastrointestinal ulcers and injuries, while nickel has a carcinogenic tendency and can also cause myocardial damage. Lead is not easy to be excreted after being ingested. Congestion and lead can lead to abnormal behavior and low IQ in children. Although manganese is a trace element needed by human body, excessive absorption will cause poisoning, and mercury can enter the central nervous system through the blood-brain barrier, causing neurological disorders and even personality changes. There is a kind of "water disease"-chronic mercury poisoning in Japan.