The November Bridges Trade BioRes reports on a new study documenting adverse health effects of marine shipping:
For the first time, a study has linked pollution-related illness and mortality to emissions of seafaring vessels.
Approximately 60,000 lung- and heart-related deaths in 2002 were linked to the pollution and chemicals emitted by large shipping freighters in a study by the University of Delaware. According to the researchers, these deaths were due to the poor regulation of the shipping industry on fuel standards.
In the last couple of decades, the international community has taken steps to reduce other environmental hazards and greenhouse gases, but the shipping industry has been left largely unregulated. Emissions released by the diesel fuel in ships have risen, while for buses and trucks the levels have been reduced by almost 90 percent.
Efficiency and environmental standards on shipping fuel have not been maintained over the years due to the distance between the ships and the externalities they create, explained the study. The freighters travel the open seas, leagues away from the coastal inhabitants who fall ill. These chemicals can spread through the water via spills or through the atmosphere after the fuel is burned for use.
International shipping accounts for eight percent of global sulphur emissions. This is unsurprising considering that the industry largely uses bunker fuel, which is the waste byproduct of distillate oil. Thus it contains the excess sulphur driven out by the distillation process, upwards of 2000 times that which is found in highway diesel fuel.
The article calls on the international community to update shipping standards in order to better protect the environment and lives of coastal inhabitants. Those who live near major trade routes will be most affected, mainly those in South and East Asia and Europe. By 2012, the study predicts that the death rate is likely to grow by 40 percent.
The UN International Maritime Organisation is conducting its own investigation and is planning a series of meetings on the issue over the upcoming months.
Ninety percent of globally traded goods are transported by the sea, and recent studies show that emissions are on the rise (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 2 November 2007, http://www.ictsd.org/biores/07-11-02/story1.htm).
"Ship Emissions Causing 60,000 Deaths a Year-Study," PLANET ARK, 8 November 2007; "Environmentalists call for ban on bunker fuel, described as toxic," SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 12 November 2007; "Report studies shipping emission deaths," GARDEN ISLAND, 10 November 2007.
Bridges Trade BioRes is published by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development. Here's the University of Delaware press release on the study: Researchers Determine Global Health Effects of Ship Emissions (press release, Nov 7).
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