From Cradle to Grave: The Life and Death of a Circuit Board

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Anjelica Hernandez Mr. ********* Senior Project February 25, 2008 From Cradle to Grave: The Life and Death of a Circuit Board I am writing my Senior Project Paper on circuit boards and their effects on the environment. A PCB is a printed circuit board, also known as a printed wiring board. It is used in electronics to build electronic devices. What has gotten me interested into this topic is my shop. My shop teacher, Mr.Cardoso actually gave me the idea. In class one day we were talking about possible senior project topics and his big idea was called “From Cradle to Grave: The Life and Death of a Circuit Board.” I basically picked this topic only because I liked the title. In shop, we use circuit boards every day. A PCB serves two purposes in the construction of an electronic device; it is a place to mount the components and it provides electrical connection between the components. I work with circuit boards just about every day but there a few things I would like to know. What types of chemicals are used to make a circuit board? How are circuit boards made? What effects do these chemicals have on the Earth/Environment? How would you properly dispose of each chemical? How many types of circuit boards are there? And what kind of household appliances are electronically based and have printed circuit boards in them? To start off my search process, I searched online. I GOOGLED “circuit boards.” There were millions of hits. I ended up not using any of those but instead looked up the chemicals found in the circuit boards. I was surprised to see that there were so many chemicals that make up a circuit board. Most of which I have never heard of before. I found out that the main chemical found in the boards is Cadmium. I then checked out two books on the element. A PCB is a printed circuit board, also known as a

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