Exporting Poisons

Will Lead Recycling in Africa and SE Asia become "the next Flint"?

Outsourcing our environmental toxics to 3rd World Countries can backfire.

Week ending March 14, 2026

March 12, 2026. Human Rights Research Center. Lead exposure from E-waste: A case study of Dandora Dumpsite-Nairobi, Kenya "Electronic waste (E-waste) is a growing concern in the world. Global e-waste rose from 53.6 million tonnes in 2019 to 62 million in 2022, with the UN predicting it will reach 82 million tonnes by 2030. Out of this, 5.1 million tonnes shipped across borders, 65%  was shipped from high to middle and low-income countries. This was done through uncontrolled and undocumented transboundary movement. However, 96.4% of the resulting e-waste is unmanaged or uncontrolled, which goes against the Basel Convention. This is due to weak monitoring systems, poor customs reporting, and limited waste management capacity which make it difficult to track these imports properly. As a result, Africa’s e-waste problem continues to grow over time: in 2022, of the 9 billion kg of e-waste generated and collected in Africa, only 0.7% of this waste is recorded as collected and recycled. In 2021, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) recorded East Africa as having generated 170 million kg of e-waste." 

Week ending March 7, 2026

February 24, 2026, Center for Global Developent Lead-Safe Off-Grid Electrification: Understanding the Issues in Sub-Saharan Africa "Most off-grid solar systems in sub-Saharan Africa use lead-acid batteries for energy storage, which can create severe risks of environmental lead pollution and human lead exposure in the absence of safe disposal and recycling. Unsafe used lead-acid battery (ULAB) recycling is thought to be one of several important sources driving high rates of lead poisoning in sub-Saharan Africa."

Week ending February 28, 2026

February 23, 2026 Punch HealthWise. Ogun tests 500 residents for lead poisoning in major health audit. "The Ogun State Government has commenced an independent and comprehensive health audit of residents of Ogijo in Sagamu Local Government Area, following concerns over possible lead exposure in the community. Recall that last November, the state government said that seven factories involved in lead-acid battery recycling on the Ogijo axis of the state had been shut down due to possible lead poisoning. The government equally announced the temporary suspension of lead ingot exportation pending a full investigation into alleged lead contamination in this community."

Week ending January 31, 2026

28 January 2026. Star African governments meet in Nairobi to fast-track lead paint regulations. "Lead poisoning remains one of the most serious yet preventable sources of childhood toxicity globally, affecting an estimated 815 million children, roughly one in threeThe workshop aims to spur new government commitments to adopt or strengthen lead paint regulations while simultaneously building technical capacity on effective regulatory approaches and enforcement mechanisms. Because of these risks, many countries have banned or strictly regulated lead in paints, but in parts of Africa, regulations are still limited or unevenly enforced, which is why initiatives like the Nairobi workshop are crucial."The event, co-organised by the Lead Exposure Elimination Project (LEEP) and the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) with support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), brings together policymakers, regulators, and industry stakeholders to tackle one of the continent’s most pressing public health challenges: preventable lead exposure in children and communities." Read more here: Toxic Lead Paint Pigment Exports from Rich to Poor Countries

Week ending January 11, 2026

• January 9, 2026​. Global Investigative Journalism Network. Tracing Lead Pollution in Nigeria to the Global Auto Supply Chain​. "During the 14th Global Investigative Journalism Conference (GIJC25), The Examination team shared the innovative reporting methods that underpinned their lead pollution investigation, published in November 2025 in a series of articles, videos, and multimedia visuals. This is how they did it."

• 10 January, 2026​. TBS News Cheap transport, heavy cost: The toxic trail of rickshaw batteries​. "Dhaka’s children are paying an unseen price for cheap urban transport. Discarded rickshaw batteries leak lead into the environment, exposing children to a toxin that permanently damages developing brains.​ Every morning, eight-year-old Rafi used to race down his lane laughing, his backpack bouncing as he made his way to school. Lately, though, his parents began to notice worrying changes. He struggled to concentrate on simple lessons, forgot things he had just learned, and seemed tired all the time.​ Alarmed, they took him for a medical check-up. The results were shocking: Rafi had dangerously high levels of lead in his blood.​ He had never handled a battery, nor had anyone in his family. Yet in a city crowded with vehicles, workshops, and small industries, lead had quietly found its way into his life—through the soil he played on, the air he breathed, the water he drank, and the food he ate. It was harming his growing body without anyone realising.​ The damage was already visible. His learning difficulties and constant fatigue were early signs of deeper, long-term health problems that could follow him well into adulthood.​"

Week ending December 21, 2025

• Dec. 18, 2025. NYT gift article Nigeria Closes Factories Linked to U.S. Auto Industry Amid Poisoning Inquiry "Carmakers have known for decades that battery recycling was poisoning people abroad. Nigeria’s crackdown is an effort to catalog the damage. The Nigerian government has begun cataloging the health and environmental damage caused by factories that shipped recycled lead to the United States for use in car batteries. A team of scientists arrived Tuesday in the industrial town of Ogijo, Nigeria, outside Lagos, to test the soil and air for lead. Officials have shut down recycling factories in the area and are making plans to conduct blood tests on about 500 people who live nearby."

• December 16, 2025. Why Nigeria cannot afford another slow-burn disaster. "It is pathetic and frightening that, at the same moment Nigeria is gasping for relief from a two-decade battle with insecurity, another crisis is quietly poisoning our future. In Ogijo, an outskirt of Lagos, lead dust has settled on everything – on kitchen floors, farm beds, church compounds, classrooms, and playgrounds – according to an investigation by Peter Goodman of the New York Times (he recently spent time in Nigeria reporting on factories that recycle the batteries that go into millions of cars worldwide)." This is not a 3rd world problem, these are US batteries being sent from the US to Nigeria to be recycled and sent back to the US to go into our cars. Read the whole story here. 

• Almost as bad as unsafe recycling is illegal dumping. Dec 19, 2025. Idaho Mountain Express. Hailey ag expert warns about risk of dead batteries. "A University of Idaho agricultural extension educator based in Hailey is warning farmers about the risks to cows posed by dead batteries. Grant Loomis is a University of Idaho agricultural extension educator based in Hailey. This summer he was in a pasture in Blaine County with a cattle rancher trying to find out why his cows were dying. 'He didn’t know if it had got into poisonous plants or what,' said Loomis. 'I was out there in the field with him walking and investigating, searching for poisonous plants and really scratching my head because I wasn't finding any.' Loomis said the investigation took a turn after lab results came back showing the rancher’s calves had died from lead poisoning. The rancher went to a part of his property where a previous landowner had likely left batteries and found them there. 'He knew just where to look,' said Loomis. 'The batteries had been chewed by calves.  Although it seems improbable that cattle would consume lead materials, many, especially younger animals like calves and yearlings, are naturally curious and non-discriminate eaters,; wrote Loomis in a paper on the topic that he shared with the Express." NO MENTION OF THE FACT THAT LEAD IS SWEET. Same reason babies are thought to eat paint chips.

Week ending December 6, 2025

December 3, 2025. Union of Concerned Scientists. How Recycling Is Done Matters—Lessons Learned from the Lead-Acid Battery "The atrocities of unregulated lead-acid battery recycling across Africa were recently investigated in a New York Times article. This account brought due attention to a pollution problem that has also resulted in a public health disaster here in the United States. Steps should be taken to clean up this industry, and lessons from this failure can help ensure better outcomes in other essential efforts, such as lithium-ion battery recycling."

Week ending November 30, 2025

• Nov. 18, 2025, NYT Gift Article Recycling Lead for U.S. Car Batteries Is Poisoning People "POISONOUS DUST falls from the sky over the town of Ogijo, near Lagos, Nigeria. It coats kitchen floors, vegetable gardens, churchyards and schoolyards. The toxic soot billows from crude factories that recycle lead for American companies. With every breath, people inhale invisible lead particles and absorb them into their bloodstream. The metal seeps into their brains, wreaking havoc on their nervous systems. It damages livers and kidneys. Toddlers ingest the dust by crawling across floors, playgrounds and backyards, then putting their hands in their mouths."

• Nov. 25, 2025 NYT Gift Article The Auto Industry Was Warned: Battery Recycling Was Poisoning People "Despite decades of evidence on the toxic effects of lead battery recycling, companies opted not to act and blocked efforts to clean up the industry. At Ford Motor Company headquarters near Detroit, Phillip Toyne, a shy Australian lawyer, warned executives in 2005 that the lead inside car batteries was poisoning people. Lead is an essential, but toxic, element of car batteries. As demand rose, the auto industry increased its use of recycled lead. But many recycling factories around the world were pumping toxic smoke into communities. Mr. Toyne, records show, pitched a solution: a program in which inspectors would certify factories that operated cleanly. Car manufacturers and battery makers could then market themselves as buying only from environmentally friendly suppliers. It went nowhere." Fallout from the NYT Series on battery recycling.

Ford Among Automakers Not Taking Action On Lead Poisoning: Report

Recycled lead used in U.S. auto batteries linked to poisoning in African communities

November 29, 2025. Lead Poison: Ogun Govt moves to suspend lead exports, shuts battery recycling plants "In addition, Chris Pruitt, executive chairman of the board of East Penn Manufacturing, a major US battery maker with ties to Nigerian companies, told The Examination and partner newsrooms that East Penn stopped buying lead from Nigeria and began to tighten its supplier code of conduct."