Is safer ship recycling coming?
Older ships are filled with a large variety of asbestos containing products, and when these ships reach the end of their active lives, that asbestos must be dealt with. After decades on the high seas, ships are often taken to India, Bangladesh and other developing nations to be dismantled. Workers in the shipbreaking yards generally are exposed to high levels of airborne asbestos as the materials are stripped from the ships and the structures are taken apart. By sending these ships to South Asia, shipping companies have been able to avoid complying with costly environmental regulations.
Representatives of several governments are meeting this week in Hong Kong to discuss ways that shipbreaking and recycling can be made safer for workers and more responsible environmentally. Critics say, though, that the current proposals won’t work to protect the environmental or workers and are too concerned with protecting the interests of the shipping industry.
Among workers in the shipbreaking yards, there are scores of deaths every year from explosions and fires. Others die of illnesses, including cancer, caused by exposure to toxins in the shipbreaking yards. Many more could die in the future because of these toxic exposures. See OSHA Fact Sheet: Shipbreaking. In particular, the heavy asbestos exposures that these workers suffer can cause mesothelioma, lung cancer and other serious respiratory illnesses, but these diseases take decades to develop. .
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