YOUR mobile phone may be an environmental hazard.

In 2006 the European Union and Japan banned phones containing several pollutants, including lead and chromium, to prevent them leaching out of landfills and into the water supply. Now a study says such measures don't go far enough.

Oladele Ogunseitan's team at the University of California, Irvine, tested 34 phones and showed that they could leak enough unregulated pollutants, such as zinc, copper, nickel and antimony, into water supplies to pose a health risk (Environmental Science & Technology, vol 41, p 2572).

Recycling programmes do not help much either, as loopholes in international law allow phones to be shipped overseas, where they can be dumped. Phones should be redesigned, Ogunseitan says.