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Greenpeace targets gamers

Posted by Duncan Madden on Wed 21 May 2008

Forget saving the whales - let's hunt down the consoles

Not content with painting their boats with rainbows, smelling of flowers and stroking squirrels, the eco cognoscenti at Greenpeace have turned their attention to the poor innocents of the console world.

Greenpeace's "Playing Dirty" (do you see what they've done there?) report has laid down the damning criticism on the PS3, Wii and Xbox360 that they "must do better".

It shows that all three platforms tested positive for gnarly sounding chemicals such as aspolyvinyl chloride (PVC), beryllium, bromine indicative of brominated flame-retardants and the impossible to pronounce phthalates, which just sounds like someone with a lisp doing Pilates.

The report comments, "Brominated flame retardants do not break down easily and build up in the environment. Long-term exposure can lead to impaired learning and memory functions. They can also interfere with thyroid and oestrogen hormone systems and exposure in the womb has been linked to behavioral problems."

Perhaps more worryingly for the average man-gamer is the existence of the tongue-twisting phthalate, DEHP, which can interfere with sexual development in mammals - and men in particular.

Greenpeace does concede that all three consoles comply with European law, though implied this was only through a loophole that meant consoles weren't considered 'toys' and therefore complied to a different set of rules, going on to say that the harmful substances used in their manufacture need to be replaced. It also singled out Nintendo, stating that its environmental policies were "non-existent" while ranking it at the bottom of its global assessment of "green" technology companies.

In response, Nintendo told us this morning, "Nintendo has not been badly rated by Greenpeace. Greenpeace chose to conduct a survey, which graded companies upon the voluntary submission of information. Nintendo decided not to take part in the survey and were therefore 'ungraded'. Nintendo provides detailed information regarding our compliance to EU Directives via the Consumer Section of our website and therefore we felt it unnecessary to take part in the Greenpeace survey."

Wonder if they're regretting not taking part now...