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Not content with prising open the iPhone in its hunt for toxic components, Greenpeace has dismantled the three big games consoles to see what unpleasant materials they contain. The resulting report, Playing Dirty, is out today. The upshot: the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii didn't break any laws, but -- as you'll discover -- they do contain dubious and arguably unnecessary chemicals.
The research reveals that the three together contain a mixture of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), phthalates, beryllium and bromine. Bromine and beryllium are mainly a health issue for workers during disposal and recycling, while phthalates have the unwelcome honour of being linked to sexual reproduction problems -- especially in male mammals. Not something that gaming geezers will want to hear.
While Greenpeace points out all three are making an effort, the results from the charity's research centre at the University of Exeter show all three console makers could be cleaner. Click on to see how they fare up.
20 May 2008 08:58am
awww no! That sucks -- I just bought a 360 and it sounds like it's the most toxic of all three of them. *groan!*
20 May 2008 10:45am
That's bad, I didn't even know that consoles had any chemical stuff in 'em.
20 May 2008 05:06pm
So when was the last time you saw someone eat one? Or better yet open it up and start playing with the components?
20 May 2008 05:13pm
@ anon 5.06pm... I regularly unplug the AV cables and power brick on my 360 so I'd rather they weren't full of dodgy chemicals. Sure, I don't open up the case and lick the motherboard. But also... do you really want kids (who have thinner skin and are more at risk of exposure to chemicals) playing with consoles that could affect them?
20 May 2008 05:24pm
Dont want to sound smug but I sold my Wii which I used only once, last christmas, on ebay for almost double the price in the shops!!I guess it was recycled.
20 May 2008 08:17pm
Don't feel bad. Soy milk and other soy products contain these same phthalates. But no one will ever tell you those are bad for you.
21 May 2008 04:08am
Didn't Greenpeace say that Nintendo was the worst of the three, giving Nintendo a 0 out of 10? Wait, YES IT DID!
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/greener-electronics-ranking-6-291107
Suddenly, any faith I had in Greenpeace has been completely obliterated.
05 June 2008 07:53pm
Do you really think Nintendo, or in fact anyone gives a crap what Greenpeace thinks? Even the guy who STARTED greenpeace thinks its devolved into a group of poorly informed hippies with misplaced agendas.
EVERYTHING contains toxic chemicals. Anything with a battery is toxic. Anything with plastic is toxic. Anything with lead, or any other number of metals is toxic. Hell, your own damned gut is toxic. But safely contained these things aren't really harmful. If you wanna recycle your XboX xos you're afraid of what's in the power adapter, feel free to just mail it to me instead. I don't intend on cracking it open with a screwdriver and licking it, or setting it on fire. I'm not gonna chew it either. Jesus H. Christ.
17 June 2008 10:55pm
Oh no, we're all going to die because there's a chemical inside a games-station.
You know what's worse? Dihydrogen Monoxide.
It's the main component in acid rain, in gaseous form it can cause severe burns, if inhaled then it can kill you, it's the main contributer to erosion, it's found in urine and it causes your brakes to decay.
I can't believe they're putting that shit in our water. Dihydrogen monoxide, man: goddamned H2O.
17 June 2008 11:09pm
You've read that article to eh?
But yeah I'm not exactly going to boycott the games industry because consoles contain chemicals.
Apples contain cyanide, but you'll never get greenpeace telling you they're harmful.
I doubt I'm gonna get poisoned from holding a control pad for long periods of time to be honest.
20 June 2008 08:09pm
It's not a very big health issue for us as gamers (I own a 360). The main health and 'eco' problems are for the people who have to recycle the consoles and for the local environment where they get recycled.
If a few gamers (hell, even half a dozen) reconsider their buying decisions based on which console is 'greenest', this report will have been worthwhile.
Agreed, toxic doesn't always equal bad, as toxins occur in nature -- but it's hard to get that level of nuance into a headline.
22 June 2008 09:20pm
green peace have ago at anything sorry but i think this artical isnt going to change the world. why bash consoles first its cars then whaling more important things to deal with than this...
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