Research finds potentially toxic chemicals used in smartphones and TVs escaping into environment

An international research team is sounding the alarm about potentially harmful chemicals — used to manufacture screens for devices like smartphones and TVs — being found in homes and other buildings even when the devices aren't present. In a paper published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers found chemicals called liquid crystal monomers in household dust samples collected in China. That's problematic, because the chemicals are supposed to stay contained within the screens. "They're supposedly sealed in the screens when they're made, but obviously they do come out," said Prof. John Giesy, a Canada Research Chair in Environmental Toxicology at the University of Saskatchewan.