PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Digit. Health
Sec. Ethical Digital Health
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2025.1495408
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Environmental Impact of Digital HealthView all 3 articles
E-waste for health: recycling smartphones for health monitoring
Provisionally accepted
Leandro Augusto De Almeida CostaBrena Ataíde FurtadoEdilson Brabo Almeida
Bianca Callegari
Alex Harley CrispRafael Oliveira ChavesMaria da Conceição Nascimento Pinheiro
Givago Silva Souza*- Núcleo de medicina tropical, Federal University of Pará, Belém, Pará, Brazil
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Portable digital electronic devices have been widely used around the world for different everyday tasks. However, every day there is also an increasing dumping of these electronic devices, especially smartphones, creating a public health problem called electronic waste or e-waste. This Viewpoint discusses how e-waste could be used by governments to promote digital health policies, especially in poorer countries. The use of e-waste could lower health care costs and reduce exposure to the metals contained in these materials.
Keywords: Digital Health, portable digital devices, Smartphones, Electronic Waste, Health Policy, health equity
Received: 12 Sep 2024; Accepted: 28 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Costa, Furtado, Almeida, Callegari, Crisp, Chaves, Pinheiro and Souza. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Givago Silva Souza, Núcleo de medicina tropical, Federal University of Pará, Belém, 66055240, Pará, Brazil
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.