Canada lax on clean IT principles

Bruce Calder is the first to acknowledge there is something deeply contradictory about his daily life.

Calder, the man behind the successful Ottawa startup Intertek/Ageus Solutions, helps local and foreign IT companies exporting overseas to replace computer components made with dangerous heavy metals. The goal is to bring their products up to the standards of the tightly regulated European market.

But examine his own imported computer, cellphone or printer, and you'll find an A-to-Z of contaminants including antimony, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, lead and mercury.

"It's ironic," the 35-year-old Calder says. "There's nothing restricting equipment with those heavy metals from coming into Canada in finished products. So, as a business, I can make it better for everyone else overseas, but I can't do much about the contaminants here."

Posted in Environment on 04/24/2009 - 0 Comments