Checking if Steve Jobs and Apple made good in their promise to be clean and green with their products, environmentalist group Greenpeace got themselves an 8GB iPhone, shipped it to their UK research laboratory, dismantled it, and checked if the iPhone is indeed environmentally sound.

The verdict? Greenpeace has determined that there's still hazardous chemicals found in the iPhone.

One of the toxic chemicals found in the iPhone - phthalates - is not banned for use in mobile phones, but has been classified as "toxic to reproduction, category 2" due to their interference to mammalian reproduction. Toxic phthalates are banned from toys in Europe.

Brominated flame retardants were also found in the iPhone. It should be mentioned at this point that Jobs mentioned in his environmental press release that Apple already adhered to the restrictions of using brominated flame retardants.

On a slightly related (and humorous) note, we can also see the iPhone's chemicals in action in Blendtec's Will It Blend site. Did these hazardous chemicals cause the iPhone to go "boom"? Just a little something to think about, of course.


Check out the video of Greenpeace's iPhone laboratory testing after the jump!

Steve Jobs' revolutionary little MP3 player not only can play and store digital music, it can even help diagnose heart problems and in the process, save lives.

In a study made by Temple University School of Medicine and Hospital, doctors were asked to practice listening to heartbeats in order to be able to diagnose heart ailments more accurately. 149 general internists were also made to listen 400 times to five common heart murmurs during a 90-minute session with iPods.

After the session, the average score improved to 80 percent (previously, the average rate of correct heart sound identification made by the physicians is 40 percent). The results were presented by lead researcher Dr. Michael Barrett at the American College of Cardiology's annual meeting.

It's very important for doctors to be proficient with the stethoscope - the sound of our heartbeats do say a lot about ourselves. A doctor who is able to recognize ailments accurately just by listening to our heartbeat is considered better than his peers who couldn't, but being able to diagnose correctly through the stethoscope takes a lot of practice. Here's where the Apple iPods come in.

Doctors are now encouraged to practice by listening to heartbeats via their iPods during their spare time. Don't laugh - the idea might sound a bit silly now but their skill might actually save your life some day.