Press release - October 5, 2002
ALANG, India — Greenpeace activists boarded a ship in Antwerp harbour yesterday to investigate whether it contains hazardous materials and to start preparing a preliminary public inventory of findings. The environmental organisation and an independent asbestos expert from Translab took samples of the Greek owned ship, the 'Silver Ray', because they are concerned the vessel is about to be exported as scrap to a ship-breaking yard in Asia without first being cleaned of dangerous toxic materials.
This ship could well be on the way to an Indian ship-breaking
yard, perhaps Alang in Gujarat. It certainly won't be the first
time a toxics-laden ship comes to Alang," says Ananthapadmanabhan,
Executive Director, Greenpeace India. "We are actively following
the proceedings and demand that ship owners routinely provide
public inventories of hazardous materials on their ships and
guarantee that dangerous substances are safely removed before
vessels are scrapped."
Greenpeace campaigner, Frank Petersen adds, "By failing to do
so, ship owners are exposing thousands of workers in Asia to
poisons and causing catastrophic environmental problems. They even
profit from this practice, which is totally unacceptable."
A Greenpeace study, The Continuous Evasion of the Polluter Pays
Principle, released today concludes that shipping companies earn
more than a billion US dollars every year from selling scrap
vessels but do not spend a penny on cleaning their vessels of
hazardous waste to protect people's health and the environment.
Loss of livelihood, polluted sediments, asbestos exposure
liabilities and death or disease caused by exposure to toxic
substances -these costs are paid by workers breaking contaminated
ships, and by the communities living around ship-breaking yards.
The results of this study will be presented to delegates of the
International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in London next week. The
IMO is meeting to discuss the necessity for mandatory guidelines
for ship owners to stop the pollution associated with
ship-breaking.
"A strong and mandatory framework must to be set up by the
international.community to make sure ship owners are held
accountable and liable for their ships and any hazardous materials
they contain," said Petersen. Ravi Agarwal of the Basel Action
Network (BAN), India adds, "The only way for us to protect
ourselves against these toxics being dumped on our communities, is
for India to ratify the Basel Declaration and implement the Basel
Ban."
A preliminary inventory of all hazardous materials Greenpeace
finds on board the 'Silver Ray' will be made public next week.
For more information:Namrata Chowdhary, Media Officer -
9810850092
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