A Hong Kong researcher has called for stricter regulations and urged the public to use electronics more responsibly after a study found toxic pollutants from laptops, televisions and smartphones in the bodies and brains of endangered dolphins and porpoises that washed up on the city’s beaches.

Yuhe He, an associate professor at City University of Hong Kong and one of the study’s authors, said he was alarmed to find that liquid crystal monomers (LCMs) – the pollutants identified in the research – were capable of breaching the protective blood-brain barrier in dolphins, which is also found in humans and other animals.

LCMs are synthetic, organic chemicals used to manufacture liquid-crystal display (LCD) screens for laptops, television and smartphones.

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