Probe sees poor US policing of electronic exports

The United States is doing little to protect against the potential dangers of obsolete televisions, computers and other devices sent abroad for reuse or disposal, congressional investigators reported Wednesday.

So lax is the oversight of the exports that the Environmental Protection Agency requires notification and approval only for shipments of CRTs, or cathode-ray tubes, such as televisions and old-style computers, the Government Accountability Office said in a report.

Even that, the report said, has led to only one administrative penalty, invoked against a shipper identified by the GAO by recruiting shippers for what would have been illegal shipments. …