What is indium? It's a rare metal mainly found in zinc ores, used in the production of touch screens. Before the touchscreen industry exploded in the last few years, indium wasn't very valuable. In fact, indium is mainly valued for its role in producing the liquid crystals needed for the screens in iPhones, the Nintendo DS, and other consumer goods with touch screens.
The extrinsic value of indium has of course risen with the boom of the touchscreen industry. However, wouldn't the conversation change drastically if indium was found to be detrimental to human health or to the environment? For example, the paper industry become demonized in the 1980s because of all the paper waste produced in offices. There was a push towards the idea of "paperless offices," where computers would eliminate the need for so much paper. Instead, paper consumption (through printing, faxing, and photocopying) and waste has more than doubled since then. Plastics, once thought to be a godsend, have 1.) become so pervasive in the environment that there is an "island" of plastic in the Pacific Ocean larger than Texas and 2.) contaminated the environment with phthalates, an endocrine disruptor that is causing the feminization of amphibians, and possibly lowering the fertility of males. Indium is not known to be used by any organism. With the rise in our daily exposure to indium, only time can tell if there are any negative consequences that result from this interaction.
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