lcd screen made from cows factory

Even more disturbingly, your rubber soled trainers contain stearic acid (from cows" stomachs) to keep them in shape longer, and the LCD screen of your TV contains animal cholesterol in the liquid crystals. Or that gelatin is used in metal processing to improve metal"s structure, such as cadmium in batteries.

Most modern electronics have hundreds of various materials in them. Some of them, like glues, could be made from animal products. There are even concerns that LCD screens may have cholesterol in them, or that some batteries may contain gelatin.

TVs, computers and mobile phones with LCD displays may contain cholesterol taken from animals. Gelatin strikes again in battery production. The animal product is used in metal processing as it improves the structure of metals and manufacturers claim finding an alternative is very difficult.

In short: Smartphones are not vegan because animal products are often used in their manufacture. LCDs are often made with animal cholesterol and batteries and adhesives often contain gelatin.

Is Toilet Paper Vegan? Most toilet paper is not vegan-friendly because it contains gelatine which comes from the bones and skins of animals or stearic acid, which is animal fat. These are used to glue the paper fibres together. Many toilet paper brands also test their products on animals.

Likewise, Prof Andrew Smith, the author of A Critique of the Moral Defense of Vegetarianism and a dedicated vegan himself, would probably concur that it is impossible to be 100% vegan, not least because plants get their nutrients from the soil, which is partly composed of decayed animal remains.

Even more disturbingly, your rubber soled trainers contain stearic acid (from cows" stomachs) to keep them in shape longer, and the LCD screen of your TV contains animal cholesterol in the liquid crystals. Or that gelatin is used in metal processing to improve metal"s structure, such as cadmium in batteries.

LCD screens, batteries, and even glue all contain animal products. LCD/LED screens -> cholesterol taken from animals. Lithium ion batteries / glue-> gelatin extracted from animal fat. With all of the chemicals we can make in a lab you would think that scientists could come up with alternatives.

Vegans utterly “shocked” and “disgusted” to find out that iPhones are made by harvesting animals. Vegans are up in flames to find out Apple has been harvesting Animals to keep up with the production of iPhones.

Car tires are made using stearic acid, a cow by-product, but that"s not where it ends. Many cars, of course, have leather seats, but they also use glue created from beef protein in car bodies, and hydraulic brake fluid is actually made from cow fat.

The majority of tyres are made using animal fat — but not all. Michelin, one of the most reliable and long-serving tyre brands anywhere in the world, make 100% vegan tyres. They achieve this by using stearic acid derived from plant/vegetable sources.

The standard every day condom is made from latex. To make the latex more soft and pliable, manufacturers use an animal substance called casein, which is a milk protein. Since this is an animal product, it is verboten to a vegan. Condoms are a billion dollar plus industry.

Graphite pencils are usually cruelty-free if you"re talking about the lead core itself. The cores of graphite pencils, otherwise known as lead pencils, are made out of a mixture of graphite and clay that are mixed together with water and compressed (source). Neither graphite or clay are derived from animals.

Who knew that fish lurk in some brands of orange juice? If you want to avoid animal products altogether, skip any juices enhanced with Omega-3"s; some brands like Tropicana"s Heart Healthy Orange Juice get those amino acids from fish oil and gelatin.

Did you know carrots have cholesterol? Well, it’s true! In 1888, the Austrian biologist Friedrich Reinitzer first discovered that certain derivatives of cholesterol (i.e. acetate, benzoate, etc.) extracted from carrots seemed to have two melting points: One from solid crystal into a milky fluid, and a second from the milky fluid into a clear fluid. Together with the physicist Otto Lehman, Reinitzer concluded that the ‘intermediate fluid’ had crystalline characteristics.

Though studied extensively in the years following Reinitzer’s discovery, it wasn’t until 1927 that Vsevolod Frederiks first devised an electrically-switched light valve called the “Fréedericksz Transition”. This is the essential effect of all LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) technology. In 1936, the first practical application of the technology was patented by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph company as “The Liquid Crystal Light Valve”.

Liquid crystals have the ability to modulate light. They do not emit light, but when oriented properly by and subject to an electric potential, they can be used to change the state of light passing through or reflecting from the liquid crystal depending on an applied electric potential.

In 1984, Terry Scheffer and J. Nehring published and patented super twisted nematic (STN) LCDs, which allowed much higher information content in passive displays.

In 1972, T. Peter Brody and his team at Westinghouse developed the first AM (Active Matrix) LCD displays, employing thin film transistors in each picture element to independently control the state of the liquid crystal in each pixel. Today, virtually all color LCD panels manufactured are of the AM type.

Twenty years later, in 1992 NEC and Hitachi became the first AM LCD manufacturers to use IPS technology. This was a breakthrough for large-screen LCDs with an acceptable visual performance for flat-panel computer screens and television applications. By the end of 2007, LCD television sales surpassed those of CRTs for the first time. Within one year, the CRT was considered obsolete for television manufacturing and just about every other practical application.

At around the same time that LCDs were overtaking CRTs in television application, Apple launched their original iPhone equipped with a revolutionary user interface (UI) primarily enabled through a projected capacitive touch screen bonded to the LCD. Today, the vast majority of smartphones and tablets employ the same TFT LCD with capacitive touch screen module integration as the central component of their user interface design.

– In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Giesy’s research team assembled and analyzed a comprehensive list of 362 commonly used liquid crystal monomers gathered from 10 different industries and examined each chemical for its potential toxicity. When inhaled or ingested, these toxic chemicals can build up in the body over time with toxic effects, potentially causing digestive problems and other health issues.

-The researchers found the specific monomers isolated from the smartphones were potentially hazardous to animals and the environment. In lab testing, the chemicals were found to have properties known to inhibit animals’ ability to digest nutrients and to disrupt the proper functioning of the gallbladder and thyroid–similar to dioxins and flame retardants which are known to cause toxic effects in humans and wildlife.

-To be clear, the researchers didn’t observe any adverse health effects from the accumulation of liquid crystals in the human body; they only found that these crystals do in fact leak from devices, and that they have the potential to be toxic. “We don’t know yet whether this a problem, but we do know that people are being exposed, and these chemicals have the potential to cause adverse effects,” said Giesy.

-If you crack LCD screens and find the liquid crystal leakage, don’t panic. Just remember that the liquid crystal materials might not be more toxic than your detergents for stove or washroom. Just wash your hands with soup throughout. Never try to play with it or even worse to taste it. The liquid of the cracked computer screen will not evaporate, no emissions worries.

-Any electronics has environment impact and can’t be used landfills. If you want to get rid of old LCD monitors or LCD TVs, give them to electronic collection stations. Let’s the professionals to handle them. They will extract some precious metals/parts and make them into something useful or at least not hazard. FYI, liquid crystal materials are retrievable.

Scientists have discovered that LCD screens leak chemicals into just about every environment where they are found, according to a new study, and these particles have the potential to be toxic over time.As described in a study published last week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers collected dust samples from seven buildings in China: a cafeteria, student dorm, classroom, hotel, home, lab, and an electronics repair shop. Nearly half of the 53 samples tested positive for liquid crystal particles—which are supposed to stay sealed in the screen after manufacturing—even in places where there were no LCD devices at the time of collection.AdvertisementThe international research team analyzed 362 chemicals used in LCD screens and found that nearly 100 have the potential to be toxic. These particles don’t break down quickly and have "high mobility" in the environment. When inhaled or ingested, according to the study, these particles can build up in the body over time with toxic effects, potentially causing digestive problems and other health issues.“These chemicals are semi-liquid and can get into the environment at any time during manufacturing and recycling, and they are vaporized during burning,” said University of Saskatchewan environmental toxicologist and lead author John Giesy in a press release. “Now we also know that these chemicals are being released by products just by using them.”According to the study, these chemicals are "simply filled" into the space between polarizers (light filters) during manufacturing and are not chemically bonded to any base material. This means that "they can be released during production; through wastewater; or during active use, disposal, or recycling."To be clear, the researchers didn"t observe any adverse health effects from the accumulation of liquid crystals in the human body; they only found that these crystals do in fact leak from devices, and that they have the potential to be toxic.

“We don’t know yet whether this a problem, but we do know that people are being exposed, and these chemicals have the potential to cause adverse effects,” said Giesy.AdvertisementLab testing showed that the hazardous substances found in phones were similar to flame retardants, which have proven to be toxic to living creatures, creating problems with animals’ digestive systems and hindering their ability to absorb nutrients. They also disrupted their gallbladders and thyroids.The team says the next step is to understand the effect of these chemicals on humans, animals, and the environment. “Since there are more and more of these devices being made, there’s a higher chance of them getting into the environment,” said Giesy.Right now, there are no standards for measuring them and no regulations limiting exposure to them. “We are at ground zero,” he said.Giesy’s previous work was the first to shed a spotlight on toxic perfluorinated and polyfluorinated chemicals (PFCs). PFCs used to be in all kinds of oil and water-resistant products such as raincoats and non-stick pans. His findings led to a global ban of PFCs.

To create an LCD, you take two pieces ofpolarized glass. A special polymer that creates microscopic grooves in the surface is rubbed on the side of the glass that does not have the polarizing film on it. The grooves must be in the same direction as the polarizing film. You then add a coating of nematic liquid crystals to one of the filters. The grooves will cause the first layer of molecules to align with the filter"s orientation. Then add the second piece of glass with the polarizing film at a right angle to the first piece. Each successive layer of TN molecules will gradually twist until the uppermost layer is at a 90-degree angle to the bottom, matching the polarized glass filters.

If we apply an electric charge to liquid crystal molecules, they untwist. When they straighten out, they change the angle of the light passing through them so that it no longer matches the angle of the top polarizing filter. Consequently, no light can pass through that area of the LCD, which makes that area darker than the surrounding areas.

Building a simple LCD is easier than you think. Your start with the sandwich of glass and liquid crystals described above and add two transparent electrodes to it. For example, imagine that you want to create the simplest possible LCD with just a single rectangular electrode on it. The layers would look like this:

The LCD needed to do this job is very basic. It has a mirror (A) in back, which makes it reflective. Then, we add a piece of glass (B) with a polarizing film on the bottom side, and a common electrode plane (C) made of indium-tin oxide on top. A common electrode plane covers the entire area of the LCD. Above that is the layer of liquid crystal substance (D). Next comes another piece of glass (E) with an electrode in the shape of the rectangle on the bottom and, on top, another polarizing film (F), at a right angle to the first one.

The electrode is hooked up to a power source like a battery. When there is no current, light entering through the front of the LCD will simply hit the mirror and bounce right back out. But when the battery supplies current to the electrodes, the liquid crystals between the common-plane electrode and the electrode shaped like a rectangle untwist and block the light in that region from passing through. That makes the LCD show the rectangle as a black area.

In a laboratory at the University of Hull 50 years ago, a new chemical compound was created that would impact the world as much as any drug, fuel or material. The man responsible for this society-changing invention was George Gray—his new liquid crystal molecules (now known as 5CB) made liquid crystal displays (LCDs) viable and kickstarted the multibillion-dollar flat-screen industry.

The story begins back in 1967 when John Stonehouse, a Labour MP and minster for technology under Prime Minister Harold Wilson, established a group to develop a technology that had only just made its debut on Star Trek—a full color flat-screen display.

Crucially, these liquid crystal structures can interact with light in interesting ways, and this is key to how they work within flat-screen displays. Each pixel within an LCD is comprised of a light source, usually a light-emitting diode (LED), and a thin layer of liquid crystals sandwiched between two filters that scientists describe as polarizing.

The light emanating from a bulb, LED or the Sun is known as unpolarised, in the sense that it consists of waves traveling outwards in a variety of orientations. By analogy, imagine a group of schoolchildren all waving skipping ropes. Some will wave their ropes up and down and some side to side, and some at angles in between.

Polarizing filters bring order to emanating light waves by only allowing waves with a particular orientation to pass. As well as in LCDs, you find them in some sunglasses, for example. If we return to our rope analogy, imagine the ropes are fed through a slatted gate. The parallel slats of the gate only allow the waves traveling up and down to propagate, while the waves from all the children shaking their ropes in other directions are restricted—that"s what polarization does with light.

This convinced him that the UK needed to develop a color flat-screen panel. A government working group, led by the physicist Professor Cyril Hilsum, met with experts in their respective fields to decide which technologies should receive funding. When it came to the meeting on liquid crystals, the expert was asked why the light was reflecting off his sample bottle of liquid crystals and casting such a curious pattern on the wall. He couldn"t answer—but a young George Gray, a chemistry lecturer from the University of Hull, could. And that moment of brilliance won him the contract.

Color screens came a bit later. They work on exactly the same principle, except each pixel is made from three tiny sub-pixels, with red, green and blue filters added to the layers, each of which can be controlled individually to generate the millions of hues we expect in our modern high-resolution screens.

The first color flat-screen TVs hit the market in 1988 when the Sharp Corporation launched its 14-inch LCD TV. Unfortunately Stonehouse missed seeing his vision come to fruition as he had died earlier that year.

Oneof several applications Kent Displays Incorporated developed from two decades of materials and manufacturing research, the Boogie Board eWriter relies on advanced liquid crystal technology.

Liquid crystal displays, also known as LCDs, contain molecules ordered in a particular orientation that interact in complex ways with light and electric fields and are built upon principles discovered in the late 1800s. (See the National Science Foundation"s Chalk Talk on liquid crystals.)

The fundamental liquid crystal research that ultimately led to the development of the Boogie Board eWriter began in 1989 as part of the National Science Foundation"s Science and Technology Research Center for Advanced Liquid Crystalline Optical Materials. The research brought together scientists from Kent State University, Case Western Reserve and the University of Akron to study the fundamental properties of liquid crystal materials and develop novel applications for their use.

The researchers succeeded in generating many new technologies that have had a strong impact on the flat panel display industry, influencing its growth in the United States. One of the technologies center researchers invented is a type of LCD that features low power, rugged, flexible screens for displays and writing tablets.

The team"s research led to eight patents, the basis for a start-up company, Kent Displays. The company originally made a range of display products, but more recently has focused on products that incorporate flexible plastic substrates and are manufactured using high-volume techniques called roll-to-roll manufacturing.

The first product to come off of the original manufacturing line is the Boogie Board eWriter, aresult of both the center research and later grants from the National Science Foundation"s Small Business Technology Transfer program. The company has sold one million devices, all manufactured in the United States since the eWriter rolled off the production line in January 2010.

The board"s liquid crystal technology creates a writing experience very much like a pen on paper. Mechanical pressure from a stylus on the writing surface causes an image to instantly appear under the tip of the stylus. This eliminates the distracting delay and parallax that often makes writing difficult on other electronic device types. The plastic display of the eWriter, which retains an image without using any power, permits a lighter, more rugged device with longer battery life and a substantially lower cost.

One of today’s modern technological wonders is the flat-panel liquid crystal display (LCD) screen, which is the key component we find inside televisions, computer monitors, smartphones, and an ever-proliferating range of gadgets that display information electronically.What most people don’t realize is how complex and sophisticated the manufacturing process is. The entire world’s supply is made within two time zones in East Asia. Unless, of course, the factory proposed by Foxconn for Wisconsin actually gets built.

Liquid crystal display (LCD) screens are manufactured by assembling a sandwich of two thin sheets of glass.On one of the sheets are transistor “cells” formed by first depositing a layer of indium tin oxide (ITO), an unusual metal alloy that you can actually see through.That’s how you can get electrical signals to the middle of a screen.Then you deposit a layer of silicon, followed by a process that builds millions of precisely shaped transistor parts.This patterning step is repeated to build up tiny little cells, one for each dot (known as a pixel) on the screen.Each step has to be precisely aligned to the previous one within a few microns.Remember, the average human hair is 40 microns in diameter.

For the sake of efficiency, you would like to make as many panels on a sheet as possible, within the practical limitations of how big a sheet you can handle at a time.The first modern LCD Fabs built in the early 1990s made sheets the size of a single notebook computer screen, and the size grew over time. A Gen 5 sheet, from around 2003, is 1100 x 1300 mm, while a Gen 10.5 sheet is 2940 x 3370 mm (9.6 x 11 ft).The sheets of glass are only 0.5 - 0.7 mm thick or sometimes even thinner, so as you can imagine they are extremely fragile and can really only be handled by robots.The Hefei Gen 10.5 fab is designed to produce the panels for either eight 65 inch or six 75 inch TVs on a single mother glass.If you wanted to make 110 inch TVs, you could make two of them at a time.

The fab is enormous, 1.3 km from one end to the other, divided into three large buildings connected by bridges.LCD fabs are multi-story affairs.The main equipment floor is sandwiched between a ground floor that is filled with chemical pipelines, power distribution, and air handling equipment, and a third floor that also has a lot of air handling and other mechanical equipment.The main equipment floor has to provide a very stable environment with no vibrations, so an LCD fab typically uses far more structural steel in its construction than a typical skyscraper.I visited a Gen 5 fab in Taiwan in 2003, and the plant manager there told me they used three times as much structural steel as Taipei 101, which was the world’s tallest building from 2004- 2010.Since the equipment floor is usually one or two stories up, there are large loading docks on the outside of the building.When they bring the manufacturing equipment in, they load it onto a platform and hoist it with a crane on the outside of the building.That’s one way to recognize an LCD fab from the outside – loading docks on high floors that just open to the outdoors.

LCD fabs have to maintain strict standards of cleanliness inside.Any dust particles in the air could cause defects in the finished displays – tiny dark spots or uneven intensities on your screen.That means the air is passed through elaborate filtration systems and pushed downwards from the ceiling constantly.Workers have to wear special clean room protective clothing and scrub before entering to minimize dust particles or other contamination.People are the largest source of particles, from shedding dead skin cells, dust from cosmetic powders, or smoke particles exhaled from the lungs of workers who smoke.Clean rooms are rated by the number of particles per cubic meter of air.A class 100 cleanroom has less than 100 particles less than 0.3 microns in diameter per cubic meter of air, Class 10 has less than 10 particles, and so on. Fab 9 has hundeds of thousands of square meters of Class 100 cleanroom, and many critical areas like photolithography are Class 10.In comparison, the air in Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA is roughly Class 8,000,000, and probably gets substantially worse when an MBTA bus passes through.

The Hefei Gen 10.5 is one of the most sophisticated manufacturing plants in the world.On opening day for the fab, BOE shipped panels to Sony, Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Vizio, and Haier.So if you have a new 65 or 75-inch TV, there is some chance the LCD panel came from here.

Over the course of the past half decade, the television has gradually become a standard American household item, to the point where it is not uncommon for a household to own more than one television. As with any object made for human consumption, the television requires materials from an earth that can only provide a finite amount of such things. These materials come from many different sources, from many different areas of the world, and are all assembled into the different working parts that make up a television. The materials as they are found raw in nature range from argon gas to platinum ore, and many raw materials are then combined into other secondary materials that are then assembled into the parts of the television. Televisions depend on a wide range of these naturally found materials to be produced, but the main kinds of materials that make up a television are secondary materials produced from the combination of various raw materials, which makes the different parts of the life cycle of a television each more complex.

The raw materials that are extracted for use in a television come from many different sources, which makes the beginning of the television’s life cycle one that starts at many different places. One of the main types of materials used in televisions are plastics, namely thermoplastics such as polyethylene. Thermoplastics like polyethylene are used because they can be melted down and remolded repeatedly, which is part of the process in making the exterior casing of a television. Polyethylene is made from the polymerization of ethylene. Ethylene is produced from the cracking of ethane gas, which can be separated from natural gas. When the polyethylene is ready, it is molded into the specific shape that is required to encase a television, and is then set into that shape by using a thermoset. The thermoset is used to fix the meltable plastic in the shape that the plastic has been molded in, meaning that once the thermoset is fixed onto the plastic, the plastic cannot be melted again. The fixing of thermosets is necessary for electronic appliances like televisions that produce a significant amount of heat, so that the plastic that encases the television will not melt down. The most common thermoset used in televisions is urea formaldehyde. Urea formaldehyde is made by obtaining urea, a solid crystal, from ammonia gas, and by obtaining formaldehyde from methane gas. The two are then chemically combined to make the resin-like material that is used as a thermoset. Another main material that is used in most television is glass. Glass is the essential material that makes up the screen of a television, and is made from the chemical compound silicon oxide. All these materials are extracted and made in factories spread throughout the world, adding to the complexity of manufacturing televisions.

While plastics and glass are the main materials that make up the exterior of a television, the interior parts of a television are made up of a greater range of materials. Plastics are also used in the interior of a television, but inside of a television are also found gases and minerals. Gases such as argon, neon, and xenon gas fill the television screen for the purpose of projecting colors into the screen, and are made visible by the phosphor coating that coats the inside of a television screen. Glass and lead are also found inside of a television screen. These two materials make up cathode ray tubes, which are the video display components of a television. Other components that are found inside of a television also require thermoplastics like polyethylene, including components such as light valves, which work together with cathode ray tubes to enable the electrons inside to be visible on screen. The main electrical components on the interior of a television require a large amount of silicon; these include components such as the logic board, circuit boards, and capacitors. Once again, these materials are extracted and processed on several different continents. Silicon can be found in many different places, but a large supply comes from California. Meanwhile, many plastics are manufactured in China, while factories in the United States manufacture glass. These materials can be manufactured or extracted in other countries as well, which also helps to make the life cycle of a television a complex and global circle.

Once the materials that will make up the television have been extracted and processed, the assembled television is ready to be distributed. Once again, the distribution process of televisions is spread out all around the world. In the case of Americans, televisions are no longer manufactured in the United States. This means that the televisions must be shipped oversea to the United States, which is done by both plane and boat. Thus, the diesel fuel used to power both planes and cargo boats are used as raw materials in the life cycle of a television. The diesel fuel used in planes and cargo boats are usually kerosene based, which is obtained by distilling petroleum. Additionally, when the televisions get to the United States, they must be distributed by means of shipping trucks, which means the natural gasoline that they use are another addition to the raw materials that are involved in the life cycle of a television. As a final step in the distribution process, the televisions are usually packaged in cardboard boxes, which are commonly made from recycled paper. More plastic is then used to protect the television in the form of protective wrap such as bubble wrap. Bubble wrap is also made from the polyethylene that makes up many components of the television, making plastic a material that is essential to every stage thus far of the life cycle of a television, as well as being a material that makes the life cycle difficult to analyze.

Once the televisions reach the home of Americans, an additional stage of raw materials usage takes place. To install and properly use a television, additional items must be used in tandem with the aforementioned television. The television must be plugged into power using wires and power outlets, which use metal and polyethylene plastic, respectively. Specifically, most wires that power televisions are made from copper, as copper is a relatively cheap conductive metal. Televisions are also commonly used in tandem with TV remotes and DVD players. TV remotes are also mainly made from plastic. The plastic most commonly used in TV remotes is a thermoplastic polycarbonate made from acrylic plastic, which is turn derived from a chemical compound made out of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen that produces acrylic acid. The additional components used in a TV remote use largely the same materials as the additional components in the main television, such as silicon. On the same note, DVD players use largely the same materials as a television. DVD players use a fair amount of thermoplastics as well for the outer casing, as well silicon for many of the interior components. Here again, plastic made all over the world is one of the main materials used to fuel the life cycle of a television, leading to the diffusion of many specifics regarding how exactly a televisions’ life cycle comes together.

After installation and the acquirement of accessories, televisions can last for a relatively long time without the need for frequent maintenance. However, when it is time for a television to be replaced, the process of doing away with the old television can be messy. Televisions are illegal to place into dumps in many states because of the hazardous mixture of gases and lead that they contain. Because of this toxic mixture of gases and lead, the majority of televisions are unable to be recycled. The specific way that the materials are combined do not allow for recycling without significant health risks to those people handling the recycling. Due to the hazards that recycling televisions pose, many televisions end up either being placed in dumps with nothing being done to them or being unused around homes. Currently, there are many researchers and research institutes attempting to try and solve this problem, such as a recent experiment done at Purdue University trying to extract the toxic materials out of the television in a cost-effective and efficient manner that still preserves the plastic for recycling. Many of these studies were done about three to five years ago, and as of yet, there is still no concrete solution to the problem of recycling electronic waste such as a television. However, progress in the form of ongoing experimentation is still being made toward a solution for effective electronic waste management.

As that progress is being made, televisions remain one of the main representations of the new digital age. They were one of the first digital products that were able to be distributed commonly across America, and ushered in a new era of consumerism. As of yet, it seems that humanity will have the means to make televisions for the long foreseeable future, though it remains to be seen how the complex life cycle of the raw materials used in a television will affect the planet.

Televisions are globally one of the dominant selling products in the technology sector. China is the primary manufacturer, being home to many of the preeminent selling TV companies such as TCL, Skyworth and others that partner with Chinese manufacturers such as Samsung and LG. Although the number of televisions that are produced per year is not a record the public has access to, it is estimated that there are seven-hundred and fifty-nine point three million TV sets connected worldwide in 2018 [14]. The cradle-to-grave of television production has five steps: the acquisition of raw and synthetic materials, the manufacturing process, the distribution and transportation, the use of televisions, and the disposal and recycling [9]. Energy application is present in each of the five stages of the complete life cycle of televisions, specifically the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) model. The entire life cycle of televisions uses and produces energy that is not environmentally safe to human and animal health and the atmosphere. Even though television companies claim to be decreasing the environmental consequences, the immense presence of energy use throughout the cradle-to-grave of television production continue to result in hazardous effects.

The first step of the television life cycle, the acquisition of the materials, produces and uses the largest amount of energy of the steps. The acquiring process of the materials includes obtainment, collection, extraction, combination, and transformation of the raw and synthetic materials. The main materials are plastics, circuits, circuit boards, glass, metals and various materials such as indium-tin oxide and liquid crystal. Plastics make up the exterior pieces and layout of the television, as well as a fewer small pieces inside. Plastic is formed from crude oil or natural gas like fossil fuels, which have to first be mined from the earth’s core and then must be processed before the polymerisation process can be carried out. This process is used to chemically combine carbon monomers in order to form carbon polymers which make up plastic and give it it’s individual properties. Overall, plastics require motion energy and electricity to be mined and chemical energy to turn oil or natural gas into plastic. Circuits make up the various circuit boards along with minor metal or plastic pieces. The circuits are originally made of silicon dioxide, or silica, which must be extracted from the earth’s crust. More modernly, silica is being replaced by quartz by some manufacturing companies. Silica and quartz are both extracted from the earth using electricity and thermal energy through mining and extraction. Silicon dioxide is used in the circuit boards because it is a semiconductor, so it must be processed with drilling or thermal techniques to obtain the desired shape and form. The obtainment of materials for the circuits involves thermal energy and electricity through the multiple steps. Silicon dioxide is also the main component in glass which is made from heating sand or quartz with waste glass and soda ash into a liquid mixture to be molded into the desired solid shape. Thermal energy is the prime energy source in the transformation process of glass, but also the minor electricity source for the silica. The various metals that are found scattered through modern televisions include gold, lead and copper. Each of these metals must be mined and extracted from the earth requiring electricity and thermal energy must be applied in order to change the form into liquid to modify the shape for parts. Liquid crystal that is used in the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) panels is found in various mineral forms and must be extracted using electricity. Indium-tin oxide (ITO) is “a scattered and rare element” that is found in the Earth’s crust, but is “challenging to [extract]” [4]. It actually does not exist as an ore itself but it is “mainly produced as a by-product of zinc mining” or lead mining [11]. The zinc and lead are mined using electricity and then using smelting techniques, which apply thermal energy, indium-tin oxide is processed out of the ores. The collection of the materials involves the extensive energy application of the varying types of energy. Once the materials are acquired, the manufacturing stage begins and the precarious energy utilization continues to grow.

The manufacturing phase applies the second most impactful energy use behind the first step, emitting hazardous effects in large, concentrated volumes. The production processes vary by manufacturer, but they generally contain assembly lines, machine tools and technology, automated robots and packaging. The plastic parts found throughout the structure and the inner parts are made using the well-adopted injection molding process. This process uses thermal energy to liquify plastic in order to be injected into the definite molds [5]. After they cool, they must be cut and sized-down to perfection with saws and cleaned manually for safety as well as appeal [5]. This requires electricity to function the saws and kinetic energy in human movements for the manual work [9]. The LCD panels are composed of a variety of substances and materials, the most prominent being indium-tin oxide, liquid crystal and metal pieces [2]. The panels are manually made adding the liquid crystal layer, the ITO layer and a few other metal and glass layers using either adhesives or screws to connect them all together. This process of building the LCDs exerts immense kinetic and mechanical energy by human labor. The glass flat screen for the television must be laser-cut to shape utilizing thermal energy and electricity. All of this electricity and thermal energy that is used in manufacturing requires incredible amounts of coal or fossil fuel consumption. The greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) resulting from the energy application are inordinately unsafe for the Earth in the short and long term. They are destroying our atmosphere which can damage plant life and harm the human and animal health. The manufacturing phase, although it is the second step most in energy consumption and emission, the concentrated levels of emission make it detrimental nonetheless. This stage includes the packaging and loading of the finished television sets in order to be ready for the next step, transportation and distribution worldwide.

Television companies sell their products across their country, continent and even overseas; the transportation systems used to accomplish this apply a sizable quantity of energy consumption. Aircrafts, automobiles, and ships are the most efficient means of distributing televisions to consumers. Fossil fuels, ranging in quantity, are what fuel the combustion engines inside all of the transportation services. Chemical energy is applied inside the engines to convert the fuel into mechanical energy to propel the truck, ship or airplane forward [8]. Efficient fuel consumption is still being studied for vehicles, airplanes and ships in order to decrease the energy intensiveness (EI) [8]. The EI includes many factors such as speed, to travel longer distances, carry more weight and be as environmentally safe as possible[8]. Combustion engines release GHG emissions dire to the atmosphere causing problems related to the health of the populations on Earth. Human labor is the other, non GHG emitting, component to move the TV products the shorter distances such as from the manufacturing factory to the trucks to the plane or ships to the stores that then sells them to consumers. The human interaction with the transportation stage only entails kinetic energy. Transportation is also employed in the acquisition of materials stage to move the inputs from the site to factories and the disposal and recycling stage from consumers to the facilities. Energy conservation of means of transportation is intensively studied to lower the consumed energy and the GHG emissions, but a permanently sustainable solution has not been discovered yet.

TV sets inevitably must be replaced, but disposal techniques are still being experimented in terms of safety, procurement of materials and the energy application, including the effects. If televisions are not recycled and disposed properly, the materials can leak into the ground contaminating clean water systems and the plant life or harm humans who do not disassemble the TVs safely [6]. The best method for dismantling has proven to be to retrace the manufacturing process backwards to disassemble it most cost-effectively and with the most recovery of materials [12]. A comprehensive study by Ardente and Mathieux (2014) initiated an ideal method that consists of five steps to dismantle LCD panels as well as other electronic devices: “reusability, recyclability, recoverability, recycled and use of hazardous substance” [15]. Experiments to retrieve and reuse all of the materials have yet to be successful, but a few of the materials have favorable results including plastics, precious metals, glass and ITO. The basis of the disassembly from LCD panels has the highest efficiency when dismantled and extracted manually rather than mechanically which applies large amounts of kinetic and mechanical energy [1]. The numerous plastic parts are best recycled using two techniques: energy recovery (or thermal recycling) and mechanical recycling (or material recycling) [10]. Energy recovery is incineration of plastic waste to be used as electricity involving kinetic and mechanical energy by manual labor, but mostly uses electricity and thermal energy to incinerate the plastics[10]. Mechanical recycling is plastic waste being recycled into other resources utilizing kinetic or mechanical energy by manual labor as well as potential energy and gravitational energy of the materials [10]. Precious metals and glass both use kinetic, mechanical and thermal energies to be extracted manually, crushed down and then typically sold to be melted down to reform for other products. Indium-tin oxide is the most recycled raw material in LCD panels and can be fully extracted by numerous techniques encompassing leaching [11], sorption [4], and pyrolysis [1]. These each include exposing the LCD panels to varying chemicals, high temperatures and a range of pressures [4]. Overall, the recovery of ITO by means of recycling involves intensive chemical, thermal and pressure energies. This final stage of disposal and recycling of LCD televisions has the most exposure to research and experimenting. It encompasses the second highest levels of energy application, relatively identical to the manufacturing phase, but there is vast potential to lower this energy consumption and waste to a more environmentally friendly approach.

The life cycle analysis of televisions is years from being complete; the manufacturer companies do not give public access to the details of each step yet and there has not been an abundance of research. The embodied energy is the least investigated aspect of the life cycle of television sets. Televisions, being abundantly produced and sold to consumers, are constantly being upgraded in terms of design, environmentally friendly, and energy capacity. Recycling of the raw materials, as well as plastics and glass, is being experimented with the most. Indium is the most prominent to be extracted and reused for more technology since indium is being mined at a rate that is running out. Television companies are competing to find safer procedure to carry out all five steps of the cradle-to-grave of TV sets. The main take away from this analysis: energy that is used and produced from the life cycle is still hazardous to the environment and the health of humans and animals. If TV manufacturer companies do not find new techniques for the acquisition of raw and synthetic materials, the manufacturing process, the distribution and transportation, the use of televisions, and the disposal and recycling, we will run out of materials and further destroy the atmosphere and the human and animal health.

[4]Assefi, Mohammad, et al. "Selective recovery of indium from scrap LCD panels using macroporous resins." Journal of Cleaner Production 180 (2018): 814-822.

[10]Dodbiba, Gjergj, et al. "The recycling of plastic wastes from discarded TV sets: comparing energy recovery with mechanical recycling in the context of life cycle assessment." Journal of Cleaner Production 16.4 (2008): 458-470.

The manufacturing of televisions has continuously been monitored as a part of the life cycle assessment in the modern day society. A television is simply a machine powered by electricity that displays images on a screen and sounds out of the speakers. Current models of TVs are mainly focused on the LCD TV, which is a liquid crystal display television. LEDs, light-emitting diodes, are the source for illuminating light by the movement of electrons on a semiconductor that gives off the variation of colors behind the display. Creating the televisions by incorporating LEDs and additional metal elements into a contained liquid crystal display with a plastic frame is the main concept for the TV. During the production of an LCD TV, the detrimental effects to the environment of the waste and emissions such as greenhouse gases from the materials of the metals can be observed through the assembly process of the television and the disposal of the substances.

As the amount of TVs are increasing for demand, the air pollution worsens in relations to the increase of metals for compact designs of the monitors. In the initial phase, the screen is created with silicon oxide and indium tin oxide that are used for polishing the glass layers. The silicon oxide is a colorless material consisting of quartz as the main ingredient while the indium tin oxide is a yellow colored substance that acts as a coating for clearness. According to the Laboratory Chemical Safety Summary, the National Institutes of Health states that silicon dioxide “may cause mechanical irritation to the eyes, respiratory tract and skin” (U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2008). The substance is hazardous as a solid form of dust particles that can be inhaled through the air. Though, silicon dioxide is applied to the glass screens in a liquid form ,which is not toxic to the workers, to smoothen the surface and correctly position the liquid crystals. Air borne inhalation of the chemical is not as harmful as the physical contact with the substance itself. Therefore, factories enforce workers to wear protective gear from the head to feet to prevent exposure to the liquids. Likewise, the indium tin oxide is cautioned with safety equipment and masks. In the Chemical Information Profile by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, indium tin oxide, ITO for short, also “may cause severe irritation and burns to the skin or eyes” (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2009). Similarly, the substance is effective in a powdered form that may cause lung infection through inhalation. The screen is then made more transparent with ITO in a liquid state. Both substances obtain a fine quality of a glass screen and are not considered devastating to the surrounding. However, ingesting and direct contact with the chemicals can be severe with the side effects in mind. Refining the glass is not the most detrimental of the process but still requires attentive measures to prevent a high accumulation of the liquids.

Another substance that is harmful to the environment within the procedure mainly revolves around the nitrogen trifluoride on the LCD television. Nitrogen trifluoride is the main component for allowing the surfaces of the TV to be water and fingerprint resistant. The substance is physically applied by the hands of human workers. By adding on the substance to the screen, the fumes released in the factories are vacated through vacuums that lets the gas into the atmosphere of the earth. Otherwise, the chemicals may be trapped within the factories during production. The National Institutes of Health evaluated that the symptoms of inhaling nitrogen fluoride affects the “blood, liver, and kidneys” and targets humans and animals such as “dogs, monkeys, and rats” (U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2018). While workers wear a suit and gloves to protect themselves from the fumes in the factories, the concentration of the gas remains toxic to wildlife that breathe on land. Although the process of coating the glass pieces are done in a sealed room to prevent leakage of the scent from the nitrogen trifluoride to the rest of the factory, the outer perimeter of the buildings are not safe to breathe. In The Guardian, a report from Michael Prather, the director of the environment institute at the University of California, Irvine notes that “as a driver of global warming, nitrogen trifluoride is 17,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide” (Sample, 2008). Carbon dioxide is already a major role played in polluting the atmosphere including the carbon emissions of the trucks during the shipment process. The amount of nitrogen trifluoride released is not a widespread issue with the concentration from the substance being contained. However, the growth is noticeable that nitrogen trifluoride is listed as a major “greenhouse gas” reported from Michael Prather in the Four Materials Illustrate Hazards Of Electronics Manufacturing (Gordon, 2017). Additionally, the composition of the air quality depicts a growing accumulation of the gas as the development of monitors of the television continue to flourish. Nitrogen trifluoride is a crucial factor to protecting and prolonging the televisions’ lifespan but contains a cost that endangers humans and animals.

In the creation of the LCD TV, there are waste factors that take place in removing the product after its lifespan. The plastic frame of the television is salvageable such that the product can be melted and reused again. But, metal components and chemicals that are built upon the circuit boards and monitors remain difficult to reattain the materials. In fact, recycling the flat-screen TV is not possible with another material within the components of the circuit boards, which is mercury. Denise Wilson of the WEEE: Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipmentreports that “inhaling mercury can lead to a myriad of behavioral and neurological problems such as insomnia, memory loss, tremors, and cognitive dysfunction” (Wilson, 2016). Even a low concentration of mercury is fatal for humans to take in while attempting to dismantle the television for deconstruction. Since the materials are not replaceable through recycling the LCD TVs, material costs are risen due to the rarity of finding the natural raw materials such as gold, silver, and copper for the circuit boards. Other materials that include indium tin oxide are nonrenewable which also limits the maximum amount of TVs produced. Furthermore, removing the metals from the television has a drawback of releasing toxicity. Wilson adds that dioxins exposed from deconstructing LCD TVs “lead to impairment of the endocrine, immune and reproductive systems as well as alter liver function” (Wilson, 2016). Dioxins are a pollutant to the air that is toxic for humans to inhale. The collective chemicals can be seen through both the production for the screen and the elimination of the product after usage. To prevent the releases of the gases into the air, depleted televisions are brought into specialized recyclers to harvest the remains of the electronics. Despite the efforts of replenishing the components, factories that melt away the components are still in existence to removing the waste. According to the author of Recycle Nation, Sophia Bennett states that “as televisions are run over by crushing equipment in a landfill, or burned in an incinerator, they release those heavy metals that can seriously affect human health” (Bennett, 2014). The physical process of “crushing” the materials is a wasteful method of removing the scarce resources from the circuit boards. Meanwhile, the chemical process of burning the metals secretes carbon and dioxin emissions and leaves solid wastes of mineral compounds. With that in mind, the electronic device must carefully be readjusted to contain friendly environmental substances that are reusable and reduce the harmful symptoms to the atmosphere.

Transporting the product of the LCD TVs also contributes to the pollution of the environment with greenhouse gases after the assembly is finished. In the delivery phase, the televisions are encased in large cardboard boxes and can be shipped to designated locations on land, water, and air. Trucks, ships, and planes all produce carbon dioxide as fuel is burned within the respective engines for the mobile vehicles. For instance, the internal combustion engine for trucks burns diesel fuel to power the pistons while the ships use coal to supply energy to the propulsion engines. Planes have the similar effect with the design of an engine that requires diesel fuel or gas. The modes of transportation mentioned beforehand increase in relations to the rising production of LCD TVs for consumers which results in a higher output of carbon dioxide as well. Thus, the carbon emissions from transporting the television is observed as a factor of damaging the ecosystem from the shipment process of the vehicles.

In essence, acknowledging the existence of the chemical substances released into the atmosphere from the waste and emissions of manufacturing and deconstructing an LCD TV is crucial for an understanding of the environmental impact it has on humans and the wildlife. As the production of televisions continue to develop the flat screen panels that incorporate toxic materials, more waste is produced as a result of the amount of TVs needed for the increase in supply and demand. In fact, electronic devices that focus heavily upon the usage of the chemical substances involves not only televisions but any creations with screens and monitors. Recording the findings of the symptoms from the chemical activities within the factories and the atmosphere allow producers and consumers to identify safer and more reliable resources that reduces the harm to the environment and life on earth. The life cycle of the television remains as an important subject for careful observations of the advancements developed upon electronic devices towards the future.

Larsen, Rasmus. “How a Screen Is Manufactured and Assembled.” How a Screen Is Manufactured & Assembled - FlatpanelsHD, 30 June 2010, www.flatpanelshd.com/focus.php?id=1277885543&subaction=showfull.

Nicola. “Energy Thoughts and Surprises.” Carbon Emissions from TV versus Books, Revisited, 28 Aug. 2015, energy-surprises.blogspot.com/2015/08/carbon-emissions-from-tv-versus-books.html.

Rouse, Margaret. “What Is Flat-Panel TV Guide? - Definition from WhatIs.com.” WhatIs.com, Dec. 2010, whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Flat-panel-TV-Guide.

Sample, Ian. “Environment: Climate Risk from Flat-Screen TVs.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 2 July 2008, www.theguardian.com/science/2008/jul/03/scienceofclimatechange.climatechange.

Glass substrate with ITO electrodes. The shapes of these electrodes will determine the shapes that will appear when the LCD is switched ON. Vertical ridges etched on the surface are smooth.

A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liquid crystals do not emit light directlybacklight or reflector to produce images in color or monochrome.seven-segment displays, as in a digital clock, are all good examples of devices with these displays. They use the same basic technology, except that arbitrary images are made from a matrix of small pixels, while other displays have larger elements. LCDs can either be normally on (positive) or off (negative), depending on the polarizer arrangement. For example, a character positive LCD with a backlight will have black lettering on a background that is the color of the backlight, and a character negative LCD will have a black background with the letters being of the same color as the backlight. Optical filters are added to white on blue LCDs to give them their characteristic appearance.

LCDs are used in a wide range of applications, including LCD televisions, computer monitors, instrument panels, aircraft cockpit displays, and indoor and outdoor signage. Small LCD screens are common in LCD projectors and portable consumer devices such as digital cameras, watches, calculators, and mobile telephones, including smartphones. LCD screens have replaced heavy, bulky and less energy-efficient cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays in nearly all applications. The phosphors used in CRTs make them vulnerable to image burn-in when a static image is displayed on a screen for a long time, e.g., the table frame for an airline flight schedule on an indoor sign. LCDs do not have this weakness, but are still susceptible to image persistence.

Each pixel of an LCD typically consists of a layer of molecules aligned between two transparent electrodes, often made of Indium-Tin oxide (ITO) and two polarizing filters (parallel and perpendicular polarizers), the axes of transmission of which are (in most of the cases) perpendicular to each other. Without the liquid crystal between the polarizing filters, light passing through the first filter would be blocked by the second (crossed) polarizer. Before an electric field is applied, the orientation of the liquid-crystal molecules is determined by the alignment at the surfaces of electrodes. In a twisted nematic (TN) device, the surface alignment directions at the two electrodes are perpendicular to each other, and so the molecules arrange themselves in a helical structure, or twist. This induces the rotation of the polarization of the incident light, and the device appears gray. If the applied voltage is large enough, the liquid crystal molecules in the center of the layer are almost completely untwisted and the polarization of the incident light is not rotated as it passes through the liquid crystal layer. This light will then be mainly polarized perpendicular to the second filter, and thus be blocked and the pixel will appear black. By controlling the voltage applied across the liquid crystal layer in each pixel, light can be allowed to pass through in varying amounts thus constituting different levels of gray.

The chemical formula of the liquid crystals used in LCDs may vary. Formulas may be patented.Sharp Corporation. The patent that covered that specific mixture expired.

Most color LCD systems use the same technique, with color filters used to generate red, green, and blue subpixels. The LCD color filters are made with a photolithography process on large glass sheets that are later glued with other glass sheets containing a TFT array, spacers and liquid crystal, creating several color LCDs that are then cut from one another and laminated with polarizer sheets. Red, green, blue and black photoresists (resists) are used. All resists contain a finely ground powdered pigment, with particles being just 40 nanometers across. The black resist is the first to be applied; this will create a black grid (known in the industry as a black matrix) that will separate red, green and blue subpixels from one another, increasing contrast ratios and preventing light from leaking from one subpixel onto other surrounding subpixels.Super-twisted nematic LCD, where the variable twist between tighter-spaced plates causes a varying double refraction birefringence, thus changing the hue.

LCD in a Texas Instruments calculator with top polarizer removed from device and placed on top, such that the top and bottom polarizers are perpendicular. As a result, the colors are inverted.

The optical effect of a TN device in the voltage-on state is far less dependent on variations in the device thickness than that in the voltage-off state. Because of this, TN displays with low information content and no backlighting are usually operated between crossed polarizers such that they appear bright with no voltage (the eye is much more sensitive to variations in the dark state than the bright state). As most of 2010-era LCDs are used in television sets, monitors and smartphones, they have high-resolution matrix arrays of pixels to display arbitrary images using backlighting with a dark background. When no image is displayed, different arrangements are used. For this purpose, TN LCDs are operated between parallel polarizers, whereas IPS LCDs feature crossed polarizers. In many applications IPS LCDs have replaced TN LCDs, particularly in smartphones. Both the liquid crystal material and the alignment layer material contain ionic compounds. If an electric field of one particular polarity is applied for a long period of time, this ionic material is attracted to the surfaces and degrades the device performance. This is avoided either by applying an alternating current or by reversing the polarity of the electric field as the device is addressed (the response of the liquid crystal layer is identical, regardless of the polarity of the applied field).

Displays for a small number of individual digits or fixed symbols (as in digital watches and pocket calculators) can be implemented with independent electrodes for each segment.alphanumeric or variable graphics displays are usually implemented with pixels arranged as a matrix consisting of electrically connected rows on one side of the LC layer and columns on the other side, which makes it possible to address each pixel at the intersections. The general method of matrix addressing consists of sequentially addressing one side