Posted on 16 December 2025 by Sue Bin Park

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Are toxic heavy metals from solar panels posing a threat to human health?

Toxic heavy metals in solar panels are locked in stable compounds and sealed behind tough glass, preventing escape into air, water, or soil at harmful levels.

Most concern focuses on cadmium and lead. 40% of new U.S. panels use cadmium telluride, which does not dissolve in water, easily turn to gas, or approach the toxicity of pure cadmium. 

During manufacturing and disposal, heavy metals are handled under safety and waste rules. Per unit of electricity, solar releases far less heavy metals than fossil fuels.

Studies and safety reviews find that heavy metals pose no qualifiable danger to health during the regular manufacture, use, or regulated disposal of solar panels.

Go to full rebuttal on Skeptical Science or to the fact brief on Gigafact

This fact brief is responsive to quotes such as this one.

Sources

NREL Polycrystalline Thin-Film Research: Cadmium Telluride

NC Clean Energy Technology Center Health and Safety Impacts of Solar Photovoltaics

American Chemical Society Emissions from Photovoltaic Life Cycles

EPA Solar Panel Frequent Questions

Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources Questions & Answers: Ground-Mounted Solar Photovoltaic Systems

EPA Ecological Soil Screening Level

Columbia Law School Sabin Center for Climate Change Law Rebutting 33 False Claims About Solar, Wind, and Electric Vehicles

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